Perhaps you have heard there are no short cuts to anything you truly desire? Maybe you have heard if you want to be healthy you should not smoke, eat right, exercise and get proper sleep? No matter what, you have to be diligent, steadfast and disciplined if you want to succeed – if you want to grow. Which brings me to the one Scripture verse which has been on my heart before the new year:
10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.
Ezra 7:10 NASB
The year was 2021, and the LORD had been putting in my heart for a rebranding and change of focus for the ministry. Rising out from that call to change direction the ministry was blessed with a new logo and graphics. Then we were led to start a podcast as the main focus of the ministry to reach the lost and build up the church.
The year was 2022, and the podcast got rolling! Week after week, the LORD sustained us and we recorded episode after episode. Then 
the last couple of months before the start of 2023, the LORD started impressing on me Ezra 7:10. It is one of my favorite verses because it tells us, as Christians, there is an order to our growth, development and being prepared to teach. Yes, we are all supposed to be able to teach. There are those who are given the gift of teaching by GOD the HOLY SPIRIT, but we are all to make disciples. Shortly after having Ezra impressed on me, my wife Holly, got me a new bible and we started to visit a new church. Then the stage was set for ringing in the new year.
Since the beginning of 2023, an emphasis on studying the gospel, as seen in 1 Corinthians 15, has been on my mind and heart. So, LORD willing, this year it is my hope to apply Ezra 7:10 to every aspect of the gospel. Please pray for me in this respect.
Now, I want to encourage and exhort you to strive for Ezra 7:10 in your daily time in the Word. I want to challenge you to take your daily devotions to another level. I want you to have the goal of putting 
into practice what GOD is teaching you in HIS Word. But that’s not all. I want you to have in your prayer life an earnest plea to the LORD to give you the opportunity to take what you have learned and practice and teach it to another. I want you to set your heart on being a student, a practitioner and a teacher. I want you to be a proclaimer of the excellencies of HIM who called you out of darkness into HIS marvelous light. I think 2023 will be the year where, if we seek the LORD with all our hearts, we can see HIM move in a mighty way and a new generation of believers will rise up! Oh may the LORD be exalted and glorified!
There is no short cut in our growth in CHRIST. It’s not enough to be students. It’s not enough to be doers of the Word. Unless we are teaching and discipling each other, especially new believers, we are missing the crowning jewel of our journey home. Just as the resurrection is the crown of the gospel; so too is teaching what we have learned and put into practice. Don’t miss out on this great blessing of the LORD.
Study, practice and teach – in that order. Let that process be the focus of this year.
Grace and peace from GOD the FATHER and the LORD JESUS CHRIST to all whose only hope is the unfailing love of GOD!
Shane Sands is the founder and president of United In Christ Jesus, a gospel evangelism missions ministry which began in 2010. Shane is husband to Holly, his godly wife (he defiantly married up). They both live in South Carolina at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, along with their ever idiotic cat, Mister Bojangles. Shane has been blessed to travel to numerous countries and states, along with his wife, to preach the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.