Stop Auditing

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says" (James 1:22).

I've thought about auditing a class or two at the University of Maryland, solely for the purpose of meeting students and building relationships with them. Of course, auditing the class doesn't commit me... I get the benefit of receiving the information the professor gives, but not being held accountable to learn it. I won't have to take the exams, write the papers... I don't even have to show up, if I don't want to. I'm an auditor... and, for that situation, it's all good.

Unfortunately, many of us do that in the Christian life. In fact, James says don't just listen to the word... in other words, don't just be an auditor. But that's what many of us do... we get information, but we never process it - we don't think about it, no one holds us accountable, and we don't put it into practice. No, James says... if this is us, we're deceiving ourselves - we must DO THE WORD. Not only listen to (audit) it, but practice (do) it. Auditing is fine for college classes... not for the Christian life. And, make no mistake - there ARE exams... and, auditing or not, we must take them.

Exams for the Christ-follower comes in the form of tests and trials... and our response is our grade... pass or fail. When God knows we need to grow in an area, he sends us a test or troublesome situation... but when we've only been "auditing the class", we haven't really learned what God has intended us to learn... we haven't practiced or applied the word to our lives... and we don't pass the test. And God sends the test over and over... you think we'd finally say, "Man, let me study this time! Let me really learn the material! Let me start putting into practice what I'm learning, so that I can pass the test (grow)!"

But often, we don't learn... and we get frustrated...
We get angry...
We grow impatient...
We're stressed out...

Here's something we might want to do:

Stop auditing.