Have you ever experienced this? You go to church Sunday morning then find yourself doing all kinds of things you know you shouldn’t Sunday afternoon, criticizing the driver in the car in front of you, getting angry at your family members for silly reasons, cursing at the referee or umpire on the TV game. As difficult as it may be to overcome these temptations, we need to put our efforts into doing the right things.

James says in his letter to the Christian churches in James 1:21, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.”

We know we are saved by God’s grace, and not by anything we have done, but now that we are saved, it only makes sense that we would show it in how we live our lives.

In order to know what God tells us to do, we need to read and listen to what the bible says, and not just make up things we think are right.

Dear Lord, help and guide us to read and listen to your words in the bible, so that we know how you say we should be living our lives. Then help us actually do it. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.