“Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.”
Psalm 145:2
It’s easy to spend all of your time thinking about doing something. When you think about doing something, it tends to provide you with the feeling of actually accomplishing that thing—at least in part. It gives you a sense that you’re actually doing something meaningful, when in in fact, all you’re doing is deceiving yourself.
No matter how you look at it, it’s inaction, even if it gives you the false sense of having actually done something. It’s an easy trap to fall into, for sure. For some reason, it can be an extremely difficult thing to simply begin.
It’s no different as it relates to the matters of the Christian life.
I heard a quote about this very thing, and it’s stuck with me for a long time—primarily because I know I can look back on my life and see the times I wish I would have heeded the advice:
“Don’t talk about it. Be about it.”
It’s really an extension of the old saying, “talk is cheap”, because, well, it is. Words mean little when there’s nothing in the real world to validate the reality thereof. The words “I love you”, spoken to someone you love, mean little if the actions of your life don’t stand alongside them. It’s a lie, even if it’s one that’s delivered with the best of intentions.
“Show me you love me” is really the cry of human heart.
So in the Christian life, it’s really the same matter as it relates to God. That’s why I love reading through the Bible and seeing reminders of it everywhere. David, in the Psalms, is constantly affirming this. “Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.” He’s attesting to the things that he is going to do, whether or not his feelings are aligned; and the fact that we hold in our hands his own divinely inspired and prophetic hymn-book, we can be pretty confident that David himself was in fact about it, in deed and not just in words.
The same can be said about the Apostle Paul. He was a doer, and he didn’t allow his feelings to dictate his actions. When Paul, in the book of Philippians says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice,” he’s not advising his hearers to talk about rejoicing. He’s not encouraging them to take up a committee where they can discuss the pros and cons of various styles of rejoicing, or to pin down what technically constitutes rejoicing in some sense; no, he’s saying the same thing here. “Do it”. Don’t talk about it, be about it.
As I look back at my own life, there are many regrets I have about situations where I should he have acted and not thought about acting, or talked about acting. When your life comes to an end, all your left with are the deeds you’ve actually done—not the deeds you talked about or planned for at great length.
I think all of this is why I love David’s succinct and plain speech about what he is doing. He’s already made up his mind, and speaks to the actions he is and will be taking, every day.
“Every day I will bless you.”
I think we all too easily overcomplicate the Christian life. Why not just pick up your Bible and read it? Why not just pray? These are the kinds of questions I ask myself all the time.
The best way to learn how to do something is to do it. It may not be good at first; it may be terrible, in fact. But that’s ok. The best way to grow in intimacy with God works the same way. Like David, approach the bible and prayer in the same way. Just do it “every day”.
Don’t talk about it. Be about it.
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