Many people seem either not to care about their spiritual condition or they believe that they can leave everything up to God and that He will do everything for them. In Ezra 7:10 we read that, “Ezra prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel”. First of all Ezra prepared his heart. He didn’t wait for God to do it for him. God does not force Himself on us nor does He do for us things that we are capable of doing. God expects us to be active agents in our own salvation, not that we are saved by our own works of merit; we cannot save ourselves apart from God’s grace. But there are some things that God requires us to do. Secondly, Ezra sought the Law of the Lord. God makes His revealed will available to us but He does not force it on us. We must seek out God’s word. In Matthew 7:7 Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” We must be active in seeking God’s will for us. Thirdly, Ezra sought the Law of the Lord in order to do it. His intent was to find out what God’s Word said and then be obedient to that Word. James 1:22 says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” And finally, when Ezra had sought the Law of the Lord and had done what God required of him, he intended to teach that Law to others and encourage them to be obedient to God’s Law as well. As Ezra did, we also should do. We should prepare ourselves to seek out God’s will for us, follow God’s Law to the best of our ability, and then encourage others to do likewise.