Read 1 John 5:20

 God offers instruction, but then it's our move. We must accept His instruction and apply it to our lives. Then, and only then, can we expect to cash in on the benefits of His instruction.

So you see, application is the essential link between instruction and change....

God has sent us His instruction. He has preserved every word of it in a book, the Bible. It's all there, just as He communicated it to us.

When He returns for His own, He isn't going to ask us how much we memorized or how often we met for study.

No, He will want to know, "What did you do about my instructions?"

Excerpted from Charles R. Swindoll, Wisdom for the Way (Nashville: J. Countryman, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2001). Copyright © 2001 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.