There was a time in my life that I thought it was enough to say I’m a Christian. That’s really as deep as it went for me. It sounds so naive but it’s the truth. There was no true life change for me. It was many years later that I understood that I was to have a true living relationship with God. When we get married, we do so because we have decided we want to spend the rest of our life with our spouse, we made a promise with him. We are in a covenant relationship. That’s what I finally figured out about God, when I got saved I was committing to a relationship with Him, a covenant relationship that He takes very serious. In a marriage relationship, we spend every day together, we desire to please our spouse, we know our spouse better than anybody else, the more time we spend together the more our desires become the same and because of these things we will have a relationships that flourishes and grows. It’s the same with our relationship with God. As a flower flourishes and grows it becomes more and more beautiful. Our relationship with God should flourish, it should be evident by how we live.
Today I am studying chapter two of James.
“What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?” James 2:14 NLT
Faith that doesn’t show itself, is that faith?
“So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.” James 2:17 NLT
If I only say I love my spouse but don’t show him any attention or love then it’s just words. If I don’t care about spending time with him then am I truly in love with him?
True genuine faith, a true genuine relationship with Christ will produce actions that are evident to people that we are a man or women of faith. Our faith will show in our deeds. We read this in Matthew also, “You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.” Matthew 7:16-20 NLT
The way we live our lives matter. I pray we see this scripture with a clear vision of what God is saying. We need to continually examine our lives. Do we see evidence of good fruit? Do we believe it’s enough to just say we are a Christian even if our life shows no evidence of a Christian life? I’m afraid there is a lot of deception thinking we can get saved and then continually live the same life as before. That is not the case. True genuine faith will result in a changed life. It will be so evident, we will see the fruit. When we come into relationship with God, He takes our sin and shame. When we believe Jesus died for us then we understood He took our sin and shame, it was nailed to the cross with Him. I can no longer live the sinful life I lived before because of what Jesus did for me on the cross. I’m unwilling to live that life because Jesus died to free me of it. We are no longer sinners once we are saved. This doesn’t mean we will never sin again, we are not Jesus, this means the lifestyle of sin is gone. He calls us righteous and from that point on we strive to live a righteous life.
I walked in shame for years until I understood that’s the enemy’s plan not God’s. God’s plan is for me to walk free of sin, past failures and shame. It took me understanding the sacrifice Jesus made for me, nobody else is willing to die such a terrible death for me, on the cross. The revelation that my shame was taken away changed me. I could no longer walk in shame because of what Jesus did for me.
I pray our lives produce good fruit. I pray my faith is always evident to those around me by the way I live. I pray I always take an examination of my life and the fruit in it. I pray more and more people walk free of sin and shame and walk in the righteousness Jesus died to give us.
The book of James has so much truth for us to live our lives by. Looking forward to chapter three next week.
Michelle 🙂
