Read James 1:22–25

Want to know God’s will for your life? Let me suggest that you stop, look, and listen. God makes His desires known to those who stop at His Word, look carefully with a sensitive spirit, and then listen to the advice that others give through the lens of Scripture. When we go to His Word, we stop long enough to hear from above. When we look, we examine our surrounding circumstances considering what He is saying to our inner spirit—what we usually call our conscience.

Consider James’s helpful counsel urging us to make God’s Word a priority when seeking His will:

Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. (James 1:22–25)

Remember this: a primary purpose of the Word of God is to help us know the will of God—we discover His will when we are intentional about stopping to look at His Word (reading the Bible), listening to His voice (that’s the Holy Spirit!) and then obeying His instructions—that means making the needed adjustments in our lives. Become diligent students of Scripture. Those who do will be better equipped to understand His will and walk in His ways.

So, when was the last time you looked in the inspired mirror? Open His Word today...what you see may really surprise you!

Devotional content taken from Good Morning, Lord...Can We Talk? by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2018. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.

The full devotional can be purchased at https://www.tyndale.com/p/good-morning-lord-can-we-talk/9781414380681.