To do it

For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. – Ezra 7.10

The altar was established. The Temple was built. Now it was time for the spiritual rebuilding of the land and Ezra was the man for the task.

As leader Ezra knew how to ready himself for the task.

He prepared his heart to seek God’s law.
He did God’s law.
He taught God’s law to the people.

I can’t think of a better pattern for spiritual revival be it for a person, a church, a nation, or anything else. We can and should pray for God to stir us up and revive us, and indeed there will be no revival without His doing that.

But I think we also have a part and our part ought to look a lot like what Ezra did.

First of all Ezra prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord. We all know that anything we do for God must start in the heart. We have to fix the inside before the outside can change. All that we do comes from the heart. Our heart reflects who we really are. If we only fix the outside then there really is no change. If only the outside is fixed then nothing is really fixed.

And then he did what we should with the word of God – Ezra prepared his heart to seek the law of God and he did it. The preparation is vital – but if there is no doing the seeking does no good. Going to church, studying your Bible, listening to sermons, attending Bible studies are all good. But we have to do for it be be effective.

And then the future – Ezra taught the people. Just like Ezra we have to teach. If we don’t teach it dies with us. Paul knew this when he told Timothy to take the things he had learned and to pass them on to faithful men so they could them to other faithful men.

Seek
Do
Teach

Sounds like a plan.