In her James Bible study, Beth Moore says, “The doing causes the changing.”

What a great word for the start of the new year.  We all have something we want to change about ourselves.  Whether it is something big or something small.  Or something small that has turned into to something big.

James 1:22-25 says, Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

God will not start blessing my efforts until I have made one.  Why would He do all the work for me?  I know this is so much easier said than done.  And progress can feel so slow sometimes.  But one thing is for sure, change comes by doing.  Not reading.  Not thinking.  Not dreaming.  It comes by doing.

And the beautiful thing is God does not leave me in the dark with this ambiguous “do.”  He has given me his Word and His Spirit and He promises never to leave me alone.