reflect on the text

James 1:22-25
     If you have ever had trouble remembering what the sermon was a week ago, this devotional is for you. We could place the blame on the preacher by thinking that the message was poorly delivered, boring, or just not that memorable. While you may be right to some degree, the responsibility to "get something from the sermon" is solely your responsibility. I know, because I have been on the other side of the pulpit on occasion. The view from the pew is quite different and at such times, I find that my attention must be focused.
     As a preacher, I want the messages I preach to be remembered. Two simple things will help us all remember what we have heard and to be better prepared to put into practice that which we have heard. As it reads in our text, we must learn to become "doers and not hearers only..forgetting...".
     The first help is to Reflect on the Text. Simply write down the text and any other thoughts on a 3X5 card and review it each day throughout the week. Reflect on it, think about its application to your life. God admonished Joshua to "meditate in it day and night" (Joshua 1:8) and Psalm 1:2 tells us that the Blessed man's delight is in the "Law of the Lord and in HIs Law doth he meditate day and night". Meditation, in the Bible, is simply pondering, thinking on the things God has said, bringing His Truth to your mind.
     A second help is to seek to Reflect the Text in you daily life. After meditating on the text, begin to seek how you might put any principles found therein into practice. What truths can be implemented into your life? This way, you become a "doer of the word and not a hearer only".
     The great fault of many is the failure to seek to practice what we hear from God's Word. Many go to church, hear a sermon and leave without listening for God to speak through His Word, thus leaving no better than when we came. Then we blame the preacher for being boring, or that the sermon just 'didn't speak to me'. This leads us to wondering whether our time might be spent better elswhere.
     But, if we will put something into it, we will get something out of it! Otherwise, we become like the foolish man of Matthew 7:26-27, who builds  his house on the sand and suffers loss.
     Reflect on the Text and then Reflect the Text; it will change your life!
"Standing on the Promises" , written by R. Kelso Carter would be a good reminder as you reflect on the text today.