"Using What Works"

“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
James 1:19, 22 (NIV)



I was at work the other day, when I walked up to a group of people who were in the middle of a conversation. I don't know what they were talking about exactly, but I heard one of them say something that got my attention: “It won't work if you don't use it.” I don't know what the “it” was, that person was referring to. But as a co-worker of mine is always saying: “I smell a devotion coming on!”


I thought to myself that the statement: “It won't work if you don't use it” could apply to a lot of different items. Items such as lawn mowers, cars, tools...and Bibles. And it is the last item that I mentioned that I want to focus on. If you're like me, you probably have several Bibles in your home, and most of them
are collecting dust. There is some really good advice in them, but I know that none of it will work if I don't put it in to practice...if I don't use it. James, for whom the book of the Bible it was named after, knew that too.


There were a lot of people in Jesus' time that would sit and listen to Him. I'm sure some of them were nodding their head in agreement at what He was advising them to do. They might have even shouted out an “amen” ...but did they use the advice He had given them...“what works” ? The Bible seems to indicate that often times, they did not.


That's one of the reasons why I like writing devotions. It forces me to open up my Bible... “the word”, so that when I “speak”, I know what I'm talking about (or at least it sounds like I do). Often times at the end my devotions, I leave my readers (and myself) with a challenge. Here's another one: Let's open up our Bibles, look for all the places where Jesus is speaking, and pick out one thing He asks or advises His followers to do. Then let's try to do that one thing. To “use what works”. Then see if that doesn't make our day...just a little bit better.