Today’s Reading: James 1:22-27
James 1:22 - But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
God promises to help us grow. The apostle Peter exhorted believers to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). These were Peter’s last recorded words before he was martyred for his faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul wrote that grace is like a teacher that trains us (Titus 2:11-12). Grace is the Holy Spirit’s teaching method as He trains us in godliness. The Holy Spirit teaches us knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus told us, “Learn from Me” (Matthew 11:29).
How do we learn from Jesus? We listen to His words and we practice what He preaches and teaches. Jesus modeled everything that He wants us to know about godliness. For example, He spoke about love and then He demonstrated love people. He spoke about humility and service and then He washed the disciples’ feet.
Jesus told us to go and preach the gospel and He showed us ways to do it. Today in Japan, we followed the example of how He spoke to a Samaritan woman at a well. He started a conversation by saying, “Give Me a drink.” He didn’t quote a Bible verse or say something hyper-spiritual. He simply engaged her in friendly conversation which turned to a discussion of spiritual things.
When we are doers of the word, we receive grace to grow into Christlikeness. We learn by doing. We may not always succeed (in our natural estimation), but just attempting by faith is success in itself. Give God an opportunity to do great things through His grace to you today!
05/28/2024
Devotional
“We learn by doing.”
We all have our own weaknesses that we are not aware of, so we can realize what state we are in through the word of God. We live by putting that realization into practice - especially about ourselves, which we know nothing about. However, there is a person who hinders this process the most, and that is myself inside me - inner man —. We can learn, talk about and practice love. We can learn and talk about humility and put it into practice in our lives, but only we know where that motivation comes from. Is it for my own benefit, for my own profit or is it really for the glory o…