James|Living a Life That’s Different.
Hearing//Doing.

Growing up, I didn’t always listen to my mom well. Most days I’d be in front of my TV, playing video games and she would walk by and tell me to do something, and I would hear her tell me to do it, but I would just sit there and not do, I was more concerned with what was in front of me, as opposed to doing what my mother was telling me to do. This would inevitably lead to my mother yelling at me and I’d get in trouble. However, as much as I wouldn’t listen to my mother as a ten-year old I think there are many of us that hear good things that we should do, but then we don’t do it. We have mentors and leaders in our lives who give us the answer to sometimes solve our problems or to navigate a difficult situation. A lot of us act like 10-year-olds. A lot of us, walk around hearing the good things that God has for us and a better way for us to live, but more often then not we don’t walk around acting like it. We don’t walk around acting like Jesus can actually change our lives, we hear that he can, but we don’t believe it.
Recently I was driving with a friend who was in my car and they were venting about something stressful happening in their life. As they were confessing this lie they were believing about themselves I simply responded with “Friend, you believe in Jesus, you know that’s not the truth. You know what your saying about yourself is a lie.” They then responded to me about how cliche the Jesus answer is. Eventually, I was able to challenge my friend in a way that allowed them to start tackling the lie, but the thing that really bothered me was how often we make Jesus a cliche answer, when in actuality what we are saying is that we don’t believe he has the power to change our lives.
Often times we hear God’s word, and we think it sounds really great, but in reality, we don’t believe it all. Because if we believed it we would do something about it.
Read the Scripture below from James and then consider the questions below.
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For 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. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But 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. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
James 1:22–27 ESV
Questions to consider:
- Name a time you heard you were supposed to do something good for you and you didn’t do it. How did that turn out for you?
- Name a time when you told someone to do something good for them and they didn’t do it. How did it turn out for them?
- What is one area in your life that you think the “Jesus answer” is cliche?
- Why don’t you believe the truth Jesus has for you in that area of your life?
- What would it look like if we intentionally tried to pursue Jesus in the area we think is “most cliche” this week?
