Saturday 19 Oct 2013

Saturday Reading: James 2:18-24

Key Verse: James 2:18
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

Devotion:
It is a difficult thing to prove your faith by works because works can deceive people into thinking that you do have faith when you do not! We can deceive people into believing that we do believe or that we do have faith by maintaining a string of works that make it look like we have faith, but what we cannot do is to live a life of sin and say that we do have faith!

We can tell people about how we believe in a single God and how God created the heavens and the earth; but even if we declare such things we would not be any different from demons because they too know these truths and believe them. But if we do say that we have faith, then we should be able to demonstrate our faith through our works; whether we are willing to do so will be a test of our faith in itself because we will have something to prove.

We have various historical events recorded in our bibles that tell of various works that have been done to demonstrate faith. None of those would have been possible without the faith they declared in the first place. If Abraham did not have faith that God would provide a sacrifice instead of Isaac then he would not have gone forward to offer his son. Without that faith he would not have been able to demonstrate his belief in God. In the same manner we need to have both our faith in God as well as our ability to work for and with God demonstrating our faith in Him.

We have enough scripture to remind us that it is our faith that is important because without it we have no hope. But if we were to do nothing about our faith when we do have ample opportunity, then are we not turning our backs on that faith and making it of no effect? The thief on the cross demonstrated his faith by telling the other thief that he believed Jesus. It may be a simple and single step that we have to accomplish for our faith to be made whole – but there will be something that we can do!

Points to Ponder:
Do you sit on your faith?

Or do you make it work?