Yesterday afternoon I got a random call from an old friend.  He said that he has a practice of reaching out to old friend very so often to catch up.  After joking with him about how far I must have been down the list that it took 25 years for him to call me we truly enjoyed catching up.  We joked about his old nick name, Mr. Follow Through.  He was known as a great guy who said he would do things but rarely followed through.  He told me that he continued to work on this area of his life and was truly helped by memorizing a few verses from James 1.  Let’s look at this passage together today. 

19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. 26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James uses a little tongue in cheek reference to motivate us to obedience and it helped my friend as well.  The person who listens but doesn’t follow through and do is like the person who looks at themselves and forgets what they look like.  Obviously we would never do that so why do we sometimes listen and not follow through.  Maybe we do truly forget.  Perhaps we get distracted by something else.  Maybe we deliberately do not because we do not want to.  Whatever the reason it is about priority.  We do not forget our face because we are important to our self.  If obeying God and following through is important we will not forget, or get distracted, or do something else.  That is what my friend learned and he told me that he began prioritizing the things he said he would do.  He said that he has made it a goal to gain a new nick name, Mr. Dependable.  I thanked him for sharing and told him I was going to make him famous and write about him tomorrow.  May we all strive to become Mr/Mrs Dependable when it comes to following God’s Word. 

In His Grip,
Pastor Dave