“When a truth of God is brought home to your soul, never allow it to pass without acting on it internally in your will. Record it with ink and with blood–work it into your life. The weakest saint who transacts business with Jesus Christ is liberated the second he acts and God’s almighty power is available on his behalf” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

My pastor once said that if you don’t live it, you don’t believe it. If you say you have a private faith, but it doesn’t affect the rest of your life, then it’s not faith at all. Faith may be personal, but it is never supposed to be private. People should be able to tell by how you live.

Something else I’ve heard from the pulpit is that you need to take what you just heard in a sermon and immediately apply it to your life. Otherwise, it stays in the room, and you walk out unchanged. If it’s more head knowledge that has no effect on your behavior, you basically wasted an hour of your time.

The good news is that God is looking for a saint who is ready and willing to obey. You don’t have to have perfect motives or perfect results for it to count as obedience. You just have to be willing to step out in obedience to put into practice what you’ve learned.

Jesus says that the one who hears the Word without obeying it is like people building houses on shifting sand. It won’t last. But if you go out and obey what you’ve heard, you’re building your house on a solid foundation. No amount of storms or winds can tear it down when Christ the solid rock is the foundation.

So the takeaway is this: if you don’t live it, you don’t believe it. If you believe it, you will live it.