6:01am

James wrote, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (1:22). Clearly, it’s one thing to listen to something or to read about something, and it’s something quite more to do what it says. My wife Jocelyn had been waking up a little earlier than usual to start out her day with some uninterrupted “quiet time” with God. She had been getting up great for a while, but like all of us, she sort of started the habit of hitting the snooze button again. One night she asked the Lord not to let this happen again the next morning. She really wanted and needed this time alone with him, so she earnestly prayed that he would “get her up.” At six the next morning, she reached over and shut off that annoying sound of the alarm clock and started drifting off back into la-la land. At 6:01 a.m., a vehicle went past our house, and a man yelled out his window, and I quote, “Get uuup!” This had never happened before and hasn’t happened since. As she laughed to herself, she rolled out of bed and started the coffee, amazed once again at her Creator. She could’ve simply listened to that wild man’s voice and stayed in bed, but she chose to do what it said. How do you read, hear, and listen to God’s Word? Do you view the Scriptures as mere suggestions or as commandments to be lived out?