PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY
LIVING FAITH |
Faith without works is dead! You show me your faith without your
works, and I will show you my faith by my works!
No, this is not a discussion of whether one should or shouldn't keep the Holy Days, the Sabbath or the Ten Commandments-it is much more basic than that. This is a discussion of living faith and whether or not we walk by faith or by sight.
It is almost five in the morning. I have been up cleaning my kitchen and office for the last two hours, and I am not done yet. In another hour I have to ``get up'' and take the kids to school.This is one of those nights David spoke of when he said, ``God's hand was on me and I groaned 'til I confessed.'' Tonight He has opened by eyes and I have learned what James meant when he said that faith without works is dead.
I want to lose weight; I have tried everything from Slimfast to counseling. You know what I haven't done? I have not walked in faith.I have not asked God to fight this battle AND THEN trusted Him to do it while I live a renewed life. I have fretted and fumed and binged and punished myself, but I have not walked day by day in the faith that God will do what is best for me, and I must do that also. My faith (for I have prayed often and for years!) has been dead!
I am an overspender. I am still looking for the genie in the bottle that is going to hop out and make everything all better, a windfall at the last minute to save my neck. I cannot tell you how many times God has been patient and provided just that. In fact, He gave me a wise and frugal husband who has kept us afloat while I have been filling the boat with water. I have prayed, I have cried, I have repented, and I have begged and promised. What I have not done is walk by faith. I have not turned my money over to God and let Him be in charge of it.I have not trusted Him to provide my needs and to know the difference between my needs and wants.I have demanded and received miracles on more than one occasion, but I have been like my three-yearold, expecting, even demanding, God to be my genie and not my loving Father.
I do not keep house. I have begged for help from my husband and my children. I let things slide until I can't stand them any more; then I go on a cleaning rampage, only to repeat the cycle overand over again. I have not lived by faith. I have not turned my house over to God and let Him guide me in how to take care of it. I have not appreciated or been grateful for all He has provided for me.I have often looked askance when He didn't provide more. I have begged and prayed and cried.What I have not done is walked by faith, worked faithfully everyday at the job that God gave me to do. I am one who has not been faithful in small things. How then shall I expect great rewards in the Kingdom to come?
Faith without works is dead-we need living faith. When we pray about something, we need to follow through, not wait. The true miracles are not the windfalls that save our behinds. The true miracle is the change that our Heavenly Father works in us, little by little, every day, as we walk by faith.
