Willingness to Obey Proves Our Faith
Read James 2:14-26
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
I love a good argument from logic. Like “yeah this is how things work, and the world just makes sense.”
Though I have realized a pattern for so many including myself that even though we may love logic it is more rare that we actually live by it. The argument that James makes in chapter 2 is one of those.
James talks here about coupling our faith with works, or our faith doesn’t mean much. This is a great tension in the Bible because Paul teaches heavily on the idea that salvation is by faith alone, and not by works, but James is saying faith without works is dead.
These actually agree with each other. I guess a better way to say it is that works prove our faith. When Abraham believed it was credited to him as righteousness before God. James is telling us that Abraham's belief was a belief that led Him to action. Without His acting in faith then his belief would have meant nothing.
Now I want to apply this to our prayer lives. I have lived many years frustrated with God over unanswered prayers. Sometimes that frustration leads me to inaction. Though recently God has been teaching me as if he was saying, “Nick I hear you, but you don’t even seem willing to actively be a part of the answer to your own prayer. It seems that you just want me to do this or that for you.”
See in the same way that faith without works is dead, I believe God is asking us if we are willing to pray and then become part of the answer to our own prayers. Like, “God will you please… and I am willing to do whatever you ask of me to see that done.”
I think that God loves it when we realize that He has given us everything we need to live Godly lives (2 Peter) and be used as part of the answer to our own prayers.
“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”
