Christian Reflection and Prayer

Scripture:

22Do not merely listen to the word,
and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

23Anyone who listens to the word but does
not do what it says is like a man who looks
at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at
himself, goes away and immediately forgets
what he looks like. 25But the man who looks
intently into the perfect law that gives freedom,
and continues to do this, not forgetting what
he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed
in what he does.
James 1:21-25 (New International Version)

Reflection:

These versus from the Book of James have
always hit home to me.  When I was active
in the ministry, I considered myself a
somewhat Biblical scholar.  I would always
look at the Scriptures and read the words
and decide how I was going to present the
words to my congregation. I very rarely
applied Gods words to my life.  I quickly
became a man of a lot of words and not
a man that lived by those words.  I was
not a man of action. 
I began to see that this was true of my
congregation.  We all talked the game
but we didn't participate.  We would read
the word, and hear the word, but we
would not live by the word.
It is so very true what David C.
McCasland said,
When I study God’s Word, my first
question should not be, “What am I
going to say about this?” but “What
am I going to do about this?”
Remember what it says in James
2: 14-17: "4What good is it, my brothers,
if a man claims to have faith but has no
deeds? Can such faith save him?
15Suppose a brother or sister is without
clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says
to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and
well fed," but does nothing about his physical
needs, what good is it? 17In the same way,
faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action,
is dead.
ASK YOURSELF, "ARE YOU ALIVE OR DEAD".

Prayer:

Oh God as I look at and hear Your Word, I pray
that I apply Your Word to my life.  Oh God
I want to be a doer of Your Word. Let my first
question be "What am I going to do about this?"