"For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel" - Ezra 7:10
There are many who go to Bible colleges or Christian universities or simply their own churches to know the Word of God better. There are even those from that group that go so that they may learn it well enough to teach it. But sadly, if this is all that is ever done (and for some, it is), then we fall way short of the desire. It isn't how much we know but what we are doing with what we know.
We learn a lot about Ezra in this short verse.
First, he prepared his heart to seek the Law. There are often times we go to church to worship and hear the Bible taught, but are we preparing our hearts to receive what Jesus wants to speak to us on? Or do we simply go with the consumer mindset of "this better be entertaining" and "I better have an emotional experience" out of this?
We then see that in preparing his heart to seek, he also prepared his heart to do it. There are many commands we know: "love the Lord with all your heart", "love your neighbor as yourself", "love your enemies", "pray for those who persecute you", "make disciples of all men", "be holy as I am holy", "esteem others better than yourself", etc.; but the real question is are we doing them and striving to do them. Sometimes the basic things we know, we shrug off by justifying to ourselves that they are too hard and nobody can fully do them as if that makes it okay to live a half-hearted walk with the Lord. When we find ourselves falling short, all the more to pray and seek out how we can defeat those failures in our life.
Lastly, he prepared his heart to teach. You may not have the gift of teaching or called to teach a bible study, youth group or congregation, but you can certainly pass on what the Lord shows you. Are you spending time in the Word waiting for the Lord to speak to you not only so that you can hear from Him, but so that you can pass it on to others as well? Truths seems to stick even more in our minds when we pass them on to others and I think we miss out on this opportunity to often. As I write this blog, the Lord spoke to me concerning this verse and as I was about to simply "write about it later", He prompted me to write about it now while it is still fresh in my mind and before something comes along that makes me forget to do it. Write down those things the Lord shows you so you can share it with someone. You'll be amazed by how often the Lord will put something in your heart that you read in your devotional or during your devotions, that He'll want you to pass on to someone that needs to hear that exact truth that day!
Now whether or not you are going to church or school to seek the Lord and teach His Word, you are responsible for doing what you hear.
"But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" - James 1:22.
You are expected to follow the truths that you hear. James goes onto to compare it to a person who looks at himself in the mirror (and let me embelish this to bring the point home a bit) and see his hair sticking out all over the place or a woman whose mascera is running and lipstick is a bit off, and yet they leave the mirror without fixing it. When we hear the Word and do not obey it, we deceive ourselves.
If you want to see your walk grow deeper, prepare your heart to hear Him, prepare your heart to seek Him, do what you hear, then share with others what you have heard. Your time in the Word is not simply a meal to indulge yourself in, but a feast to have others partake with you in as well.
