This past week has been a whirlwind! Always so much to take in when starting a new job (no matter what the industry). In healthcare, there are regulatory competencies and education that are completed by all workers, regardless of the work setting, patient population, or geographic location. HIPAA for example…is federal legislation that requires annual compliance training. Breaking that law can get you into big trouble. On Tuesday, I rushed my way through hours of modules on content I feel I know very well. Most seasoned healthcare workers take this same approach. You can be competent of the knowledge and still choose to be ignorant, or should I say laxed for a better usage of words, when it comes to application. Based on my previous example, if I had a dollar for every time a computer screen was found unsecure with patient information sitting on a maximized screen, I could retire.

On my way home today, I got to thinking about how we often take this same approach to God’s Word. And not just us in modern times but throughout history. Generation after generation, trial after trial, and circumstance after circumstance, we are taught the same lessons. We experience the sovereignty of God, not when we know the word, but when we apply it. Did you know the phrase “Do not be afraid” appears in the Bible 365 times?!?! Moses struggled with fear and doubt that he should be the one to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Elijah, a prophet, at one time feared for his life and fled to the desert. Jonah ran away out of fear, only to find himself in an even more precarious situation, in the belly of a whale. All these men knew of God and His word. It was only when they acted in faith that their fears were overcome, and the Lord led them to do marvelous things AKA His work.

I guess, my point is don’t just keep approaching the word with a mundane mindset…finishing scriptures you know mid-sentence when the pastor is preaching but have yet to put action to. Use your knowledge to be a doer of the word. Show the Lord you are committed to His will and His way, and allow Him to bless you as He sees fit.

“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves. 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 has looked intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and has continued in it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an active doer, this person will be blessed in what he does.” – James 1:22-25