Live Out the Word

God has richly blessed me in being married and now having a beautiful baby. I have been learning more and more what it means to be a loving husband. I remember before I got married I was hoping to understand what is expected of a loving husband? Like I totally believed in the institution of marriage and that a husband should love his wife as himself. I know that I should learn from different people, books about what it means to be a loving husband. Therefore just think if I have this image of what a loving husband is and I totally just ignore Annie and hung out with the boys, I ditch her for a date because I got good Bulls tickets, I don’t help around the house but totally make a huge mess, I don’t listen to her and instead when she wants to tell me how her day went, I turn on the television…..and after all that is said and done, how well do you think it will be received if I came up to her and said, I am really sorry I know what a good husband is suppose to be, I totally have the understanding of that, but I am just not doing it ….will you forgive me.

Read and re-read James 1:19-27

God desires a life with Him that doesn’t just know what He wants and expects, but one that actually lives it out in our very lives. We continue to read the Word, hear messages on the Word, and continue to see God speaking to us through many different ways. However, God is calling us not to just be mere listeners but we have to live it out. However, if you are in a place in your life that you are not listening, that obviously has to be your first step. There are many distractions in life that want to tear you away from the Word and hearing from God. So make sure you make this a priority. I love the book of James because it has such practical advice for us. We make ask, how do we live it out in our lives? Well, get rid of all moral filth and evil in your life. Then humbly accept the Word planted in you. See the ways that God’s Word gives us freedom and continued to do that everyday not forgetting his promises and grace. You can recognize that this is not the case if you start seeing that you are not living a life that reflects his holiness and love. James points this out in being a person that doesn’t watch his words and essentially is talking about people that live as hypocrites. Then he points to something that looks out of place which is to love the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. It doesn’t seem to connect to us, but when godliness and love from God enters our heart, we have to realize something. God has special concern for the widows and orphans as these are symbolic of all groups open to exploitation. If we truly understand what it means to be God’s people who have been embraced into His Family then we have to extend our love and family to those on the outside. We were all at one time on the outside, but through God’s grace He (not our birthright, not our works) have been allowed to come into this family. God is the protector: “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing” (Deut. 10:18). So we must remember to love those that are being marginalized in our society because as God loves us, we are to be a light and reflection for this world of God’s love and grace. In order to do this, we cannot be polluted in the ways of this world and we absolutely can’t do this from a distance, we must put ourselves in places that know and have relationship with those that are need.

Reflect on the ways you have been a good listener of God’s Word, then a good doer of His Word. Ask God for strength to strive for those things.