DAILY DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR WESLEY January 25, 2024
Reflected in the Word
Humbly acting on the correction found in God's Word places us on the path to blessing.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. James 1:23-25
Salar de Uyuni, a salt flat in Bolivia, covers more than 4,000 squares miles. During the rainy season, a thin sheet of water makes it the largest mirror in the world, so large it can be seen from space. It creates startling images with its reflection of the sky and surrounding mountains. But like most watery mirrors, it doesn’t reflect a perfect image.
A perfect mirror allows us not only to look at our reflection but also to see accurately. A fun mirror at a carnival, however, will show a distorted version. To see ourselves as God does, James says we need the “perfect law,” which is another name for God’s Word. And the reflection of ourselves we see in the Bible is perfect in the sense that it is complete—the Word misses nothing. The insights we gain can prepare us to live in greater faithfulness.
Because hearing or knowing what the Bible says is not our final goal, we need to go beyond simply looking at it. Just as our bathroom mirror shows us if we have hair out of place or leftover lunch in our teeth, the mirror of the Word doesn’t just show us how we look. It reminds us how we ought to look, by revealing gaps in our obedience. If we act on those gaps, letting Scripture disciple us to live in loving submission to Jesus, we can become what James calls a “doer.” And the result? We will be blessed as we do all God has asked of us.
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