FAITH FOR LIVING
Without faith it is impossible to please Him (Heb. 11:6).
STRENGTHENING YOUR FAITH Board game or boardroom, everyone hates being neutralized. Having our influence or effectiveness nullified by an adversary or circumstance brings disappointment. Yet that is exactly how the Evil One works in the lives of believers. Neutralizing our faith is the name of his game. The book of Hebrews exhorts us, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God” (3:12). It adds, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (11:6). The book of James is all about a faith that overcomes trials. How do we live by faith and avoid being neutralized? James suggests we do these three things:
1. MINISTER TO THE NEEDY
faith and provide what he or she needs, trusting God to help you in your need? Or will you merely say, “Depart in peace”? If we are learning that God can meet our financial needs, He likely will send us a financial struggle to test our faith (1:3). And with that struggle, He probably also will send someone who needs money. When we help someone else, we demonstrate our trust in God to help us. This pattern runs throughout the Old Testament. God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt and led the Israelites to the edge of the Red Sea. He already had demonstrated His power by sending 10 plagues that devastated Egypt. But when the Israelites saw the water before them and the Egyptian army behind them, did they trust the Lord to protect them? No. They complained and failed to demonstrate a living faith. Yet, an active, living faith is what carries us through hardship, difficulty, pressure, rejection, and disappointment. It delivers us through life’s trials and enables us to see God’s gracious provisions. That is the type of faith God wants to see in us. A living faith may mean giving someone your last $10 because you believe when you need $10, God will provide it. It is possible to be born again but not exercise a living faith. “Someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (2:18). God wants us to trust Him and live accordingly. Ministering to others when we’re not sure how we will make it ourselves is living by faith, isn’t it? It shifts the focus off ourselves, makes us more like Jesus, and helps us continue to grow spiritually.
“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?” (Jas. 2:14). Our evangelical mindset automatically equates the word save with being removed from our spiritually dead, sinful conditions. However, here it is better translated “deliver,” the generic meaning of the Greek verb sozo. Translating it “deliver” forces us to ask, “Deliver from what?” James was saying that faith without works cannot deliver (save) us from the trials of life. If a brother or sister in Christ needs clothing and food and we merely say, “‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but [we] do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?” (v. 16). What use are we? If we can 2. MANIFEST A WORKING FAITH fill a need, yet all we do is talk and not help, our faith is dead. “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the Faith without works is useless. It cannot carry us through the demons believe—and tremble!” (v. 19). Demons understand, trials the Lord sends to mature us. but they don’t live by what they know. When Jesus ministered Perhaps you’re hurting, disappointed, have financial set- on Earth, He met a man possessed by a demon who cried out backs, or are suffering illness and God brings someone into to the Lord, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus your life who needs your help. Are you willing to step out in of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You 38
ISRAEL MY GLORY
