This morning, while reflecting on the daily reading of my choice I was lead to a passage in James Chapter 2.
James, a brother of Jesus is writing ‘To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:’ This is part of what he writes:
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it ways. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – — he will be blessed in what he does.” (James 2:22-25)
Perhaps you have heard about a way of teaching and learning called ‘mirroring.’ You can look it up and find some interesting information about the success of this way of teaching. Actually we do with infants all the time. We repeat an action or sound until they mirror it back, and we do the same for them, it’s child’s play.
Christlike child’s play is on a different level, we desire to mirror or to live like Jesus. In order to become more like him, we have a need to listen to his words, to read them, to inwardly digest them, to follow his life story and then, to make a decision to do the things that he did and the things he asked his disciples to do.
It’s easy to open the Bible, or a devotional, read a passage, close the book and move on to the next thing. Ok, I finished my devotion, what’s next? Get the kids up, breakfast, off to school, work, shop, etc. . . oh. . . what was that passage about? I forgot . . . and forgetting the passage, here we are – living in the world like everyone else, lost in the business of the Holiday Season rather than living intentionally as our Savior did, to love and serve others and bring glory to God.
Remember what you look like today – you are a child of God, created in his image, to do good things for him in this generation.
Praise God for the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Perhaps the book, ‘Praying Our Way Through Stress: Drawing Wisdom from the Lords Life and Prayer’ is one you might choose to read and in reading, perhaps it will help you to remember what you look like and perhaps, you will be blessed.
