Be doers of the word

Jas 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

It is so incredibly easy to hear and not do the things we hear isn't it? It's easy to KNOW to do good, but incredibly difficult to do the good things we know we should do. Why is it that way? Why?

I KNOW I shouldn't lose my temper. I KNOW I shouldn't speak hurtful things. I KNOW I should be more considerate of others. I KNOW I am so incredibly far from being a doer of the word in so many ways. The closer I long to be to my Savior the further away I seem to go. I've noticed just recently after studying about 'counting it joy', and trying to implement this in my life that Satan pulls out all stops and not just in me but abusing those I love so that it pains me to watch them being spiritually attacked over and over again.

These spiritual attacks happen ALL the time and yet we've been taught to believe they are far from spiritual attacks and simply human invention. Humans don't like to believe they can be used by Satan to hurt others and yet it happens all the time. Satan exploits our weaknesses and our propensity towards evilness in all forms. If He knows we are hurt by something that is supposed to be harmless, he'll do all he can to bring about that supposed harmless situation. Oh there are so many ways the evil one works at us and when we can see his work in us shouldn't it sicken us? I know it sickens me to know that Satan's influence on a spiritual level affects me and my actions. I don't want to be hurtful, harmful, insensitive and yet all too often I find myself being that way and the sad thing is a lot of the times I try and justify the reasons I have for being that way- another trick of Satan's. Preserve SELF at all cost! Even when giving up some of self- turn that into a supremely selfish act through motive. Are we truly giving of ourselves because it is what our Savior desires of us or are we giving of ourselves so that we may APPEAR to be giving as our Savior desires? Satan uses wiles we can't even comprehend as he attempts to twist our lives so horrifically that we don't know whether we are coming or going and His purpose? To get us to give up in despair, to be defeated by all the confusion he's managed to cause.

Doers of the word.

In all our actions.

This isn't simply for becoming the supposed ideal Christian person- diving head first into all manner of Christian acts, this is for ALL aspects of our lives. Our Savior's word touched our lives on many, many levels and it's in ALL those levels that we have to be DOERS of the word. We don't get to pick and choose when we should be doers and when we should not, simply because we should ALWAYS be doers of the word. If we are not ALWAYS doers of the word then we are truly DECEIVING OURSELVES.

Deceiving ourselves has become an art form, hasn't it? We deceive ourselves in so many various ways and we do it because the ultimate goal is to live for self. Self preservation- mentally, emotionally, physically. Our lives revolve around preserving ourselves in so many, many ways. Whenever we get upset in any way we need to stop and ask ourselves if there is any self preservation involved in this upset. By self-preservation I mean are we concentrating on self, preserving our self desires, our wants, our idea of how our lives should be, our opinions, our choices over another's, our needs, our idea of how something should be done or shouldn't be done. Are we putting ourselves FIRST for whatever reason we can think of? Are we more concerned with how we are made to feel about ourselves than anything else? Do OUR feelings come first? Are we ridiculed and laughed at, and does this produce a selfish desire NOT to be treated like that? Does it created a desire to preserve SELF? We NEED to ask ourselves this, we HAVE to ask ourselves this because giving up self is the message of our Savior who came and GAVE UP HIMSELF for US! We are to give ourselves up for Him and for others, we are to come LAST- not FIRST and we put ourselves FIRST in so many, many ways!

Doers of the word in ALL ways or we truly are deceiving ourselves. If we think for one moment we can be hearers only and then go away and live our lives any ol' way we choose, keeping that old man alive, that old self alive and well by feeding it all the sin it's used to being fed, then we are DECEIVED! We HAVE to be HEARERS of the WORD and THEN DOERS! This is an action, the action of DOING, of LIVING the Word of God in our lives!!!

Please Lord, help us! Please! Save us from OURSELVES! Please!

In Your amazing love always!!!!!!!

Through Your righteousness forever!

Please Lord, mercy…