A SAMPLE, NOT A SERMON

Psalms 119:112 I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, even unto the end.

It is a sad thing that many of us are prone to preaching rather than acting. Oh, it is so easy to talk about God, to talk about service and self-sacrifice. How many preachers have beautifully constructed sermons on the virtues of a life consecrated to God. Those would want to tell me the way, or expound it to me. Let me now say to the smooth-tongued philosopher that I would prefer that one would show me the way by the example of his own personal consecrated life than one who would tell me about it. Give me any day a performer of the virtue, rather than an exhibitor.

All the more, it is so easy to serve God when life goes like a song. It is so easy to love and praise Him when the road is smooth and the weather is temperate. Let us now see what happens when the road is bumpy and the whether unfriendly. Should we be God’s fair weather friends only? Should we not go all the way in our obedience to His commandments, even of the harder commandments, those we are not so prone to obey because they tend to take us out of our comfort zone? Those like Preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15), Love your enemy (Matthew 5:44), give to whosoever asketh of thee (Mat 5:42), no man can serve God and Mammon (Mat 6:24)?

Let us today make the hard decisions that confront our spiritual lethargy. Let us “perform” His statutes always, even unto the end.

James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.