-July 30, 2023-
Good morning, happy Lord’s Day,
“So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain.”
(Ezekiel 33:31).
As believers, we are great hearers of the Word, but not so great doers. God knows our hearts and our sincerity. We go to church, listen to the message, thank the speaker, telling him what a great message it was, but then we do nothing to obey it and apply it to our lives; we go for counsel with no intention of following it. We follow it only if it matches what we want to do. We are no different than the Israelites of old.
In the days of Jeremiah, after Judah was taken into captivity, a group of soldiers came to Jeremiah seeking his counsel to know God’s will whether they should stay in the land or go to Egypt. Sadly, they were only going through the motions for their minds were already made up. They waited on the Lord’s answer for 10 days. Jeremiah told them to stay in the land and they would be safe and prosperous. They decided to go to Egypt anyway in disobedience to the Lord. Jeremiah rebuked them saying, “For you were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and according to all the Lord your God says, so declare to us and we will do it’” (Jeremiah 42:20).
The Lord desires doers not just hearers, walkers not just talkers. We are responsible for every thing we hear. Let us act and react to the Word, and put it into practice. It takes commitment to follow through and do God’s will when it runs counter to what we want to do.
Have a blessed Lord’s Day listening to learn, and learning to live. Stay safe and healthy.
Not just hearing to know, but hearing to obey and apply,
Dean
Dean Allen's Daily Devotional 