When God says “do this,” faith says “done.”
When God directs, faith picks up the map, packs a bag, and heads out.
When God says speak, faith can’t remain silent.
When God says reach out, faith can’t keep to itself.
The beauty of this faith that is found in Christ is that it is real and full of His power, and it enables the beholder. This faith that is found in Christ is a hope, a confidence, an assurance, in which the follower of Christ claims his identity, and it moves him.
Faith may lead a person beyond borders to share the gospel. It may lead someone to hang out with the homeless or the friendless. It may cause someone to speak up in school for a person no one else cares about. It may bring someone to volunteer. It may start an organization to reach out to the orphans of the world. It can cause someone to find the unloved and show them what love is, and what love does.
The beauty of faith is that it is active.
The person that has found faith in Christ has a story to share. The person that has found Christ has a new call in life which changes everything. This new life stems from finding the One who made it available. The life that follows is one of reliance on Him, and desires to point others in His direction by any means.
Faith in Christ lives out loud.
Many times faith is active through response. Response to hardship. Response to broken relationship. Response to loss of loved ones. Response to a call on your heart by the Spirit. Response to a need that is known.
Also, faith brings about a response of thanksgiving for all the blessings that occur daily. We hear that we are blessed far beyond what we deserve; but the truth is we deserve nothing. Every good thing that has been handed to us is a blessing from our Father. And faith in Christ causes us to respond to the many blessings in our lives.
Faith causes us to pour into the people around us. Faith causes us to share things the world says keep to yourself, because we know that people need to come to relationship with Jesus. We want to be a part of that. The world tells people to keep their problems to themselves. Faith causes us to reach out, to share our stories, and to listen when people trust us with theirs.
Faith changes lives; it sets eternal destinations.
This faith that changes lives is a faith in the One that showed the greatest love in the history of the world. This faith is in the One that owns time, the One that commands the waters to be still and they are still, the One that knows every corner of our heart to the greatest depth and still loves us; the One that gave Himself in our place that we may come to know Him.
His great love is not only the motivation behind our faith and the action that follows, but the very reason our faith was born into existence.
The book of James tells us that “claiming faith” is of no value. Faith goes far deeper than what we say with our mouths, which box we check on our social media ‘religious beliefs,’ or whether we wear a cross around our necks. Faith is far deeper than what we do with our Sunday mornings or our Wednesday nights. Faith isn’t on some checklist in life; it is the essence of life itself, for the follower of Christ.
We learn that in living for Christ, our faith and our actions will work together, and they will grow each other.
We know that true faith in Christ is accompanied by a posture, a lifestyle, of love and obedience that follows the example Christ himself exhibited for us; always pointing to the Father.
There are a million things in this life that you can choose to place your faith in. If I can encourage you in one way, it is that you place every egg of faith you have in the basket named Christ, and let your life be defined by Him. He has a plan for your life and you are precious in His sight. He loves you. He proved it a long time ago, and He continues to express His love and compassion daily. My life would be wasted if not for Christ. #LETMEINTRODUCEYOU
When we couple this faith in Christ with the knowledge that He is Emmanuel, God with us, every aspect of life changes for the glorious better.
Check out James 2:14-26
