Onion Rings

James 1: ²²But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³For 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. ²⁴For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. ²⁵But 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.

James is one of the half brothers of Jesus. He is speaking to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion, which are the tribes of Israel after the Assyrians and Babylonians scattered them. James instructs them to be doers of God's word. To just hear God's word without doing it will only deceive one's self. It's like obviously seeing what your present appearance is but then quickly forgetting what you look like. We are blessed when we look into God's perfect law and do what He says.

I feel really convicted. And the silly thing is, it's all about onion rings. I shared them last night without really wanting to share them. Well, I suppose I felt I was doing a Godly thing at the time but really, the more I think about it, I didn't do what God wanted me to do. I acted out of my flesh and not out of God's word. I shared the onion rings out of a feeling of obligation and a desire to be viewed as generous. I must repent. If I know that I cannot share something with the joy of the Lord, then I need to truly get my heart in the right place before taking action. I am learning a valuable lesson from James about doing God's word but more importantly, I must do it with God's heart. If I just hear God's law and use that to fuel my own self-righteousness, I am not doing anything that is bringing glory to my Heavenly Father. However, if I can hear God's word, allow it to transform my heart, and then out of the overflow of my heart act, I will do Godly things. Most importantly, I must persevere at doing this, meaning that it'll take a lot of tries and sometimes I get it and sometimes I won't but I gotta keep trying. God is really patient with me. This morning, I am humbled. I see clearly how much I've fallen from the mark, but I pray that God will restore me and that I'll use this experience to drive my actions in the future.

Heavenly Father, You are the Holy One. You are perfect and good. I am a sinner and still so self centered. Please forgive me and change my focus to be fixed upon You. Jesus, give me Your heart. Show me how to act upon Your word and lead me in that righteous way. Please help me to forgive myself. May I persevere in doing Your will. I know that You have already forgive me, so may I receive that forgiveness and gain strength for the future testing of my faith. Lord, I want to be a doer of Your word. May my motivations and priorities match up with Yours. I pray all this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.