²² But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (James 1:22 CSB)

I will date myself today. Kids go look this up on YouTube. Back in the day Dr. Pepper had an ad campaign around “Be a Pepper”. The jingle was unforgettable, “I’m a Pepper, he’s a Pepper, wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper too!” My brain is a repository of childhood jingles, so their advertising must have been good.

The scriptures should not need a jingle for us to follow them as believers. However, in many ways it would be best so we as sinners could remember them and more importantly be doers of the Word.

I know writing these devotionals has helped me remember scripture. I can often quote the gist of scripture but struggle to remember the actual book or verse. Maybe that is less important than knowing and following the meaning. The importance is in the application and I must continually admonish myself for knowing and not doing, these deceiving myself.

When we only hear the words we deceive ourselves and miss the deeper meaning and application. It becomes like being trained for a job but never applying our knowledge.

Life is in the application.