Say What You Mean, and Mean What You Say

Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?  - Luke 6:46

My dad used to tell me, “Son, say what you mean and mean what you say”. What he meant by this statement was that my actions need to align with my words. He also taught me to be sure to know what I believe in because what we commit our lives to better be worth it.
 
I have known some people who have called themselves Christians, but honestly, I wondered about it being true. I am sure there were times in my life that, although I knew Jesus, my life did not reflect it in the moment. Maybe it was because being obedient to Jesus was hard, or not what everyone else was doing, or I just wanted to do what I wanted to do.

In Luke 6, Jesus warns about such a thing. He says that when we hear His words and do them, we are building our lives on a solid foundation that will withstand the test of time and trials of life. However, if we hear His words and do our own thing, it is like building our lives on a weak foundation that quickly crumbles when life happens.
 
Building requires work with good instructions, and the Christian life requires work as well, and the good instructions are God’s Word. If we are believers who have been redeemed by Jesus, we can be confident in the instructions He has given to build our lives on the foundation of His Word.

Building our lives on Jesus looks a lot different than building our lives on what the world says. It means our hope is in His good authority and not ours. It means that we are to love others even when we are not loved in return. It means that we are to be generous and expect nothing in return. It means that we are to be about building His kingdom and not our castle.

James 2:17 says that faith not accompanied by works is a dead faith. Committing our lives to Jesus is sometimes hard but worth it. If we are Christians, may we say what we mean and mean what we say.