Precision Pursuit
Day 4 | Doers of the Word
A Scripture-centered reading from the Precision Pursuit devotional collection.
Day 4 | Doers of the Word
I love sports, but I must admit I would rather participate than spectate. You won’t catch me on an NFL field, and if you did, it would probably be me asking for an autograph. I played football in high school and was one of the runts on the field.
That’s one advantage of growing up in a one red light town.
I’ve experienced getting the wind knocked out of me. I’ve hit someone bigger than me and folded like an accordion. I know what it feels like to win, and I know what it feels like to lose.
But I’ve got some good news. I’ve read the Good Book, and in the end, we win.
That doesn’t erase the scars, the battles, or the struggles ahead.
One thing sports and exercise taught me is this: strength deteriorates when you stop using it. Whether it’s weightlifting, running, or training, endurance fades when you stop putting in the work.
Faith works the same way.
If you don’t use it, you lose it.
God didn’t call us to sit idle. Some of the strongest rebukes in Scripture were aimed at people who buried what God gave them instead of using it.
I’m not the most gifted person. I don’t play an instrument, and my vocals are definitely not award winning. I still stumble over words sometimes, even when they’re written on a screen right in front of me.
What I’ve learned is this:
focus on what God called you to do, not on what you think you can’t do.
Before you say, “I can’t,” remember this:
with God, all things are possible.
Growing up, I was awkward and shy. More introverted than extroverted.
Today, I don’t mind standing in front of people at all.
Precision Practice
God has a way of growing us beyond the fears we once thought defined us.
Don’t let insecurity, fear, or negative thoughts keep you from getting involved.
Don’t just hear the Word.
Live it.
Precision Passages
James 1:22-25 NKJV
(22) But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
(23) For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;
(24) for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
(25) But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
James 2:26 NKJV
(26) For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Hebrews 12:1-2 NKJV
(1) Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
(2) looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.