Opening Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I am still so divided. I truly want to follow you, but I also want
to follow my own desires and lend an ear to the voices that speak about
prestige, success, popularity, pleasure, power, and influence. Help me to become deaf to those voices and
more attentive to your voice, which calls me to choose the narrow road to
life. I know this will be a very hard
road for me. The choice for your way has
to be made every moment of my life. I
have to choose thoughts that are your thoughts, words that are your words, and
actions that are your actions. There are
no times and places without choices. And
I know how deeply I resist choosing you.
Please, Lord, be with me at every moment and in every place. Give me the strength and courage to live my
life faithfully, so that I will be able to taste with joy the new life which
you have prepared for me. Amen. (The
Road to Daybreak by Henri J.M. Nouwen)
Scripture: James 2:14-26
Journal: What is the relationship between belief and
behavior? What does your life say about
what you believe to be true about God?
How (and where) does what you say you believe need to take shape
in your life these days? Where are the
gaps between belief and behavior?
Reflection:
Dear friends, do you
think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do
anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it?
For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and
say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy
Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where
does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is
outrageous nonsense?
I can already hear one of you agreeing by
saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the
works department.”
Not so fast. You can no more show me your
works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works.
Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.
Do I hear you professing to believe in the
one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had
done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does
it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith
and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?
Wasn’t our ancestor Abraham “made right
with God by works” when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn’t
it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself
in works? That the works are “works of faith”? The full meaning of “believe” in
the Scripture sentence, “Abraham believed God and was set right with God,”
includes his action. It’s that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham
named “God’s friend.” Is it not evident that a person is made right with God
not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works? (James 2:14-24, The
Message)
Prayer
Closing Prayer: Lord God, help me to truly believe in you,
even with my life! Amen.
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