Hearing and Doing the WORD

James 1:19-25 (ESV)
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

What an on-time passage this is for me. I've found myself in the midst of extreme warfare lately, specifically this past week. I've fallen short many times, doing things in my flesh rather than walking in the Spirit. I truly want to have an intimacy with Christ, and I feel as if I am in an obstacle course full of hurdles and walls, ditches and lakes. Only when I overcome the obstacles will I reach Christ, who is waiting on the other end. I urgently want to get there, but I keep tripping on the hurdles, falling off the walls and into the ditches, and sinking in the lakes. His Word is my strength, but I've been weakened by my shortcomings. My focus has shifted from the end of the course and on to the actual obstables themselves.

Now I'm back at square one. I'm looking across the obstacle course and I know what I have to overcome. I've been equipped with the means to get there (the Word of God), and even have a strategy planned out (Faith). Now that I know the Word, I must act on the Word by Faith, only then will I reach the end of the course and obtain my reward. I have to watch what I speak and make sure that I listen intently while I make my way past the hurdles. As I listen to God's instruction I must act fast and talk later. Rather than get upset at how I feel and how things look, I must stay meek and low, climbing the walls and jumping the ditches, knowing that these obstacles are just a test of my faith. As I act on the Word, my faith will increase, and like Peter I will walk on water over the lakes to the end of the course, and I will receive my blessings of intimacy with the LORD and His will being done in my life.

Although this illustration may seem kind of corney, it is exactly how I feel right now. I know that I have the victory and that God has strengthened me to persevere as an overcomer. No matter what comes my way, I will press my way through and receive every promise that God has laid up for me.