ONLY LOVING OBEDIENCE BRINGS BLESSING!
My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. —Proverbs 7:1-3
And now, O sons, listen to me: blessed are those who keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. —Proverbs 8:32-33
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. —Matthew 28:18-20
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. —Matthew 7:24-27
It if very clear that the “wise man” hears the Word of God, keeps it, treasures it, obeys it and puts it into practice. Wow… there is a lot in that statement! The “wise man” doesn’t “merely listen to the word, and so deceive” Himself. He does “what it says.” He knows that “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do” (James 1:22-25). Blessing comes when a follower of Jesus continues in His Word. They do not forget what they have heard, but they do what they have heard! Jesus did say, “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them” (John 14:21).
A person can have the whole Bible memorized, but if he is not applying it then what good is that, what use is that? He can hear God’s Word on the readio, in sermons, in trainings… but if not applying God ‘s Word to life he is living in disobedience. He can quote and tell you what God’s Word says, but He has no experiences of God working in and through his life, not fruit. He is not being obedient to what God is saying to Him. There is a real danger in listening and reading God’s Word without application. What is it? It is self-deception. Beware of not being obedient to God. It actually is showing that a person actually does not love Him!
How about you and me? Are we being obedient? Do we really love Him? May it be so Father in the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the authority of Jesus. Oh yes, so be it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjdaZlIXyEc