Monday Morning Devotions.

James 1:25- "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 word, this one will be blessed in what he does."

"...blessed in what he does." Does this mean that your profession will make you a millionaire? Will you experience a pain-free life? No sickness, no disease, no heartache? Is it guaranteed that that special one will agree to marry you? Are all these guaranteed if we "do the word"? Of course not. Those things which we dream about, that may be good in themselves, are not guaranteed by our obedience. Yet we have this promise that if we are doers of the word and not hearers only, we will be blessed in what we do. This is a guarantee from the brother of our Lord Jesus Christ who wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In what way is this promise guaranteed to us?

Jesus once told us to ask, to seek, to knock. What are we to seek after? Jesus asks whether Fathers, when asked by their sons for bread, fish, or an egg, will give them stones, serpents, or scorpions? The answer is obviously no. Then Jesus declares "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" (Luke 11: 9-13) When we are saved, when we are not hearers only but doers of the word, the Father and the Son working through the Holy Spirit within us changes our hearts so we have new motivations driving us. We seek for the things of God, not those things we formerly desired. Like Paul, we will want to know Him more. That is what we seek when we are doers of the word. We want to know Him more and be like him. And as we do the word, the Holy Spirit blesses us with more Christ likeness, even to the point of being able to control our tongues. (James 1:26) As we are changed so that we want to be more in the image of the Son, the Holy Spirit blesses us in answering this prayer as we obey Him. And one day the Son will present us to the Father holy and undefiled! (Scripture quotations from the NKJV)