Be A Doer

One of my all time favourite films is Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back. Before Ireland's 2nd national lockdown I was fortunate to take my son to see it in the cinema for its 40 year anniversary. It was amazing to see on the big screen again. This has always been my favourite Star Wars films. You may not be a Star Wars fan, or perhaps, have never seen the film, but the point I’m about to make will still make sense.

In one of my favourite scenes in the film, a character named Yoda was training a young man named Luke in the ways of the force. In that training, Yoda instructs Luke to perform a task, and Luke responds with an attitude, “Alright I’ll give it a try” This bothered Yoda because Luke was operating in doubt, even before he followed the instruction. Yoda knew Luke would fail simply because of both his words and his attitude. Yoda responding to Luke says, “no, try not, do or do not, there is no try.” Of course Luke fails because he never had any faith to begin with, he was only giving it a go to please his mentor.

There’s a scripture in the Bible that this whole scene in The Empire Strikes Back reminds me of. The Apostle James said in James 1:22 says “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” I’ve heard people say “well, I’ll give God a try, or I’ll give the Bible a try.” Maybe you’ve said this yourself. They're acting just like Luke, starting from a position of doubt. When we start with a “well, I’ll give it a try” attitude, we’re setting ourselves up for failure. Not only that, but we’re then allowing ourselves the opportunity to justify our failure with “I’ll give it a try”.

Yoda responded to Luke’s doubt, “Always with you it cannot be done. Hear you nothing that I say. You must unlearn what you have learned.” Just like Luke, there’s been so much rubbish that we have learned and picked up in this life which limits us and limits God from intervening on our behalf. We’re living in a time where fear is massive and promoted nightly in our news. We need to reprogram our thinking to line up with what God says about ourselves and what He says about our lives.

The Apostle Paul said in Romans that faith comes by hearing and by hearing the word of God. That means that if we want faith in God instead of doubt and fear, then we need to read the Bible. If we want to be a doer instead of a hearer only, we need to study Gods word and allow it to produce faith in our lives. That’s not a once off. It’s something we should do diligently daily. How are you going to approach God and His word? Are we going to approach God by faith in His word or doubt? There is no in between. We may prefer to walk some imaginary middle of the road but it doesn’t exist.

There is either being a doer of Gods word or a hearer only. It’s so important that we decided which we want to be. If we're to be a doer, that means that we study Gods word, meditate on it and follow what it instructs us and apply it to our lives. If we’re a hearer only then scripture will never do us any good. If we approach God and scripture with a “I guess I’ll give it a try” attitude then like Luke we set ourselves up for failure.

God responds to faith. Jesus says in Mark chapter 4 that for the hearer, when God’s word is sown in their lives, Satan will come immediately and take that word away. Because they have no real root, it was never “planted” in their hearts. As a consequence they don’t actually believe it, have faith in that word, and the devil is able to steal it. They may even receive it with gladness, but because of difficult times, life’s cares or other desires, that word falls on deaf ears.

If we approach Gods word with an attitude and only are giving it a “try” then we are setting ourselves up for failure. However, if you approach Gods word in faith, with a doer attitude then Gods word will produce fruit in your life. To overcome life’s storms we can’t approach them with a try attitude, but approach them full of confidence in God. God is faithful. I want to encourage you today to decide to be a doer. A doer has full faith and confidence in God’s ability to intervene on their behalf.

I’ve seen Him intervene in my life so many times and I’ve shared some of them in this video series. Let me finish with this example. Years ago I has taken a trip to India to preach the gospel there with several friends. I had become severely sick and had a dangerously high fever. My friends earlier in the day had left to minister in a leper village and I was in our hotel room by myself. I became very concerned when I opened my Bible to try to read some scripture and nothing made sense.

My fever was so high I could hardly think straight. I felt like I was in fire! I lay in bed dangerously ill. Suddenly the phone rang. In answering, it was my mom. She said she had been praying and God told her to phone me. I could hardly even talk to her. She prayed and almost immediately I began to feel better and by the afternoon I was 100% well.

Listen to me please. God wants to help us at every opportunity.

God loves you! God is for you!

Choose today to be a doer of God’s Word.