Forgetting something?

But be careful to do what God says in his message. Do not only listen to it. Do not make that mistake! You must obey God's message. Do not be like a man who quickly looks at his face in a mirror. That man looks at himself, but then he goes away. He immediately forgets what he is really like. So do not just listen to God's message and then forget it. It is a completely good message that makes people free. Look at it carefully and keep it in your mind. Do what it tells you to do. God will bless anyone who lives in that way. (James 1:22-25)

If you have ever asked, "But why?", at any point in your life, you might have received varying replies. "I said so, that's why!" "Because it is the right thing to do." "Just do it!" The list could go on, but you know as well as I do, if you are questioning the 'but why' of any action, there is something either you don't understand or you don't want to do. If we don't understand fully WHY an action is good for us, but we just do it, the outcome may be good, but we still have that lingering need to know why. If we ask God 'why' before we take the specific action he requires, we are usually not trusting him fully. It is important to remember who we serve - he is faithful, trustworthy, and always with us. We may not always understand the 'why', but we can always trust the 'WHO' behind the request.

Do what it tells you to do - those words might just rub some the wrong way. The idea of being obedient in this relationship with Jesus is the one thing that makes many remain on the periphery of what God has planned for their lives. They like the idea of being saved, redeemed from the pit of hell, but they don't always like the idea of life changing as a result of his presence within. Sometimes the actions he requests are so different than what makes us 'comfortable' that we don't pursue those actions. We say we will not 'conform' to those 'rules' or 'regulations' he has laid out because they are 'no longer pertinent to society today' or that it will make life difficult for us. God never asks for 'grudging obedience'. He asks for whole-hearted obedience. The more we resist obedience in any form, the more we will begrudge it when the only step forward is that obedience.

God's message is meant to be lived - not just heard. So many times, we go to church on Sunday, hearing a great teaching, then by Monday have forgotten most of what was taught. By Tuesday, we likely don't remember the little bit we remembered on Monday and by Wednesday, we even forgot the topic all together! Why? We didn't take what we were taught and put it into use. If we look in the mirror in the morning, seeing our hair disheveled and sleep in our eyes, but never wash our face or comb our hair, how will we go throughout our day? Disheveled and looking rather 'frumpy'. Did we intend to look that way? No, we wanted to present a better image, but we didn't take up the comb or fill the basin with water. We just walked away untouched by what could have been the simplest of actions. 

Most of the time, God's request for obedience is not all that difficult. It is kind of 'simple', in fact. We just resist it because it means we have to stop, pay attention for longer than a few minutes, and put a little action into it. Maybe what has been missing in our lives isn't the truth - it is the action required to allow the truth to really sink in. Just sayin!