To hear is to receive in the mind what is being said, and that is important. Fail to hear the telephone ring, and you will not know that someone wants to speak to you. Failing to read God's Word, and not going to His house to hear His Word preached, you will not get the truth in your minds. But, what is even more important is that it gets into your soul as well as into your mind, and affects your life.
That is why James 1:22 tells us, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." Unless we do what we have heard, as God speaks through the Scriptures, and through the preaching of it, it has not entered our souls, but only into our minds.
In verses 23, 24 James tells us that those who hear the Word, and do not do what they heard in it, are like men who look into a mirror and see their faces temporarily with their eyes, and then after walking away forget what they saw, and might have to go back. Let us not forget that God's Word is the mirror that reveals to us what is good and what is evil in man's life. It reveals to us what God thinks of us. And it is very important that we see ourselves as God sees us.
How about it? Have you been swift to hear what God says, or what Satan says in these temptations? You can find the answer very easily. If you are a doer of what God presents in His Word, and are one who walks by faith, you have the evidence that you are a child of God. There is the evidence that you did receive that Word in your soul, and not merely in your mind.
Take hold of this awesome truth: God's word entered into Satan's mind; but what he does reveals that it is not in his soul.
Walk as a child of God, walk in love to Him, and you have proof that you are His child and that He loves you. For it reveals that you love Him, and that His Word is in your soul.
Read: Matthew 7:15-29
Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism
Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
II Kings 13:1-25
II Kings 14
Acts 18:23-28
Acts 19:1-12
Psalm 146:1-10
Proverbs 18:2-3
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Quote for Reflection:
"That is the mystery of the cross. In the moment of the cross God forever blotted out all the sins of all the elect. They are justified. Their sins are no more. And it is on the basis of the atoning, justifying act of God in Christ that our sins are forgiven us. …There is never an end to God's forgiveness. Never does God say to us 'So often have I forgiven you, and always you commit the same sins. I will forgive you no more.' There is never a last time with God. He forgiveth abundantly. His mercy is without limit. And so there can be no last time with us." ~ Herman Hoeksema
Additional Info
- Date: 28-June