Living Faith

There are so many topics I have been working on that I haven't posted yet because I want to develop them a little bit more. So, if this one is cut short, I will probably add something on to it. However, it seems like such an important topic, I couldn't let it rest!

Last night at a service at church, the pastor was talking about faith. Faith is a word that is tossed around a lot. However, it is a concept we use every single day of our lives. When we step into our cars, we have faith that they will get us to our destination safely. When we pick up a pen, we have faith that it will put down the words we write on a paper. When we send an email, we have faith that it will get to the recipient. When we deposit our money in the bank, we have faith that the teller will actually add the amount to our savings. We have faith in so many small things. However, we also all have faith in things in life we cannot necessarily see. We have faith that gravity will hold us down on the earth. We have faith that the earth will continue to orbit the sun and stay at its particular degree of tilt. We also have some sort of faith in whatever belief we hold to about the universe, where it came from, and where we will go once we no longer breathe.

What I am getting at is that faith is something we exercise everyday and it is proven through the actions we take. We sit in that car. We use that pen. We deposit the money. We don't jump off a tall building.
The illustration many of us have heard is that of faith in a chair. You walk into a room and see a chair and usually don't stop to think of whether or not you should sit in that chair, in case it collapses beneath you. You sit in it. That is pure evidence of your faith in that chair.
Taking this one step further, the chair is that which holds you up. It is not your faith in the chair that keeps you from meeting the floor in a less than graceful manner.
What I am aiming to get across here is that faith is something that requires evidence for it to be faith. If we went around saying I have faith in chair to support me but refused to sit in it...that would be pointless and quite ridiculous.

Therefore, if we claim to have faith in God....we had better check to see if that is true. Do you have faith that there is a God or do we really have faith in God, so much so that there is evidence in our lives of that faith?

I have more to say but must be going for now. Please let these words sink into your heart.

James 2:14-26

14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless[d]? 21Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,"[e] and he was called God's friend. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.
25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.