A man who has been my mentor at church for a few years often says that his goal when he reads the Bible is to then live it out. I like his focus on putting learning into practice. It’s too easy to study, talk about and even teach the Bible—without ever letting it actually make a difference to how we live!

I heard one Christian speaker say: “There is a danger of getting too familiar with the special truths of the Bible. We talk so much about the Bible’s words in our churches, and forget that we have to do what it says in our lives. It is far too possible to mistake knowing the Bible for living out the love, wisdom and obedience to God that it actually teaches.”

James reminds us that the person who lives without “forgetting what they have heard but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do” (JAS. 1:25). The key issue is not what is preached or talked about in our Bible study groups, but what is done. When we study the Bible, we should always find time to ask, “What am I going to do about this?”

By: David McCasland

To Pray About . . .

Lord, give me strength to live out my faith, so that I won't deceive myself.