Transform Blog

READ: James 1:22-25

We are selective hearers, aren’t we? We tune in to what we want to hear, and we tune out what we don’t want to hear. God has a lot to say about listening and hearing. He challenged those who had ears but who never heard what He had to say. He confronted those who only heard what they wanted to hear.

James, in his letter, talks about the close relationship between hearing and doing. “Be ye doers of the word,” he said, “not just hearers only, but hearers who do not forget and doers who act.” According to that statement, he is saying that discipleship involves a responsibility of right hearing, which issues out in faithful doing. In other words, if we listen to the words of God but do not live them out—if we listen to them but do not respond to its directions about life—it means we never really heard it.

God wants our hearing of His word to become our doing of His word. Right hearing issues out in faithful doing. That is the only way another person knows whether or not you really heard them. How do you know if someone is hearing you unless you see some kind of response? Love dies without right hearing and faithful doing. How is your hearing; how is your doing?

-Dr. Tim Thompson

READ: Psalm 90:12

The 90th Psalm has a profound word on the matter of aging and the passing of time. God is reminding us that life is contingent and brief. Time passes quickly. We don’t know what a day may bring. So, our daily prayer should be, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Because the psalmist acknowledges the brevity of life, he knows that every day is a fresh, unique gift of God to be received with wonder and to be savored with joy. Every day is an incredible gift of God to you and me. To savor sunrises and sunsets, to hug and be hugged, to look into the faces of those we love and who love us, to hear the birds sing, to smell the earth after a rain, to hold a newborn baby—such miracles are too precious and powerful to miss.

Live today; seize today. Glory in the present moments instead of wasting the moment looking for the perfect moment. “Oh Lord, teach us to number our days aright, so that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

-Dr. Tim Thompson

READ: Proverbs 12:18, 16:24

Great families are built on the foundation of encouraging words. What kind of words do you speak in your home? Do you speak words that build up or tear down? Words that bring life or death? Critical words, or encouraging words?

Our children get beat up enough at school. We get beat up enough at work due to discouraging words of others. The world is not kind. It is filled with a barrage of critical words. Home is the place where we come to be built up, lifted up, and encouraged.

I love the old song, “Home on the Range.” “Home, home on the range, where the deer and the antelope play. Where seldom is hear a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day.” Home is where you should seldom hear discouraging words.

There was a little boy trying out for the school play, and his mother was worried he would not make it. On the day the parts were awarded after school, he ran to the car excited and said, “Mom, I made it!” She asked what his part was, and he said, “I have been chosen to clap and cheer.” Moms, dads, husbands and wives, God has chosen you to clap and cheer for one another.

-Dr. Tim Thompson