God’s Word is like a mirror: it shows us exactly as we are—not as we would like to think we are. God’s Word is more than a literal mirror, for it not only reflects what we are on the outside, but it penetrates into our hearts to expose what we are on the inside.

After looking in a mirror, we do not usually forget what we look like. But we have a very convenient lack of memory after the Word of God has exposed us as we really are. Instead of taking to heart the seriousness of our condition, we quickly and easily gloss over it by dishonest rationalization, perhaps thinking that God’s Word is speaking to someone else rather than to ourselves. It is good to submit with our hearts to the message of God’s Word with a sincere desire to be obedient—not only as a hearer, but also as a doer of the Word.

An unbeliever soon discovers that he cannot be a doer of the Word in his own strength. First, he needs to be born again by the power of the Spirit of God, and, in God’s Word, he finds the way of salvation through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary. After receiving Him by simple faith, the believer now realizes that God’s Word is a wonderful source of joy and of power—the very power that is needed to be a doer of the Word. Then he no longer obeys with merely a sense of duty, but instead there is a deep, pure joy in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus personally. Legal bondage will be replaced by glad obedience to the precious Word of God: “I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart” (Ps. 40:8). Do I delight to do His will?