James 2:19-20
Are there still some among you who
hold that “only believing” is enough? Believing in one God? Well,
remember that the demons believe this too—so strongly that they tremble
in terror! Fool! When will you ever learn that “believing” is useless
without doing what God wants you to? Faith that does not result in good
deeds is not real faith.
The
Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by
permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois
60188. All rights reserved.
Yesterday was a day for
“making memories.” Timothy’s first grade class presented a play…”The
True Story of Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer.” Timothy was Rudolph! The
children were each adorable in their roles, and the play was presented
for about 30 family members and friends who came for the performance
(including 8 member of Timothy’s family!). There was a Christmas party
in the afternoon, which included a surprise visit by Santa Claus himself
(a childhood friend of mine who is doing a superb job portraying the
jolly old guy).
In between these events, Timothy’s Uncle Greg and
I went with him to the cafeteria and kept him company while he ate his
lunch. Several times during the day, Timothy told us how much he loves
us. And it didn’t take a rocket scientist to determine how happy our
nephew was that he was getting so much attention. Timothy knows that he
is loved. But every child wants to be shown this…particularly by the “gifts” of our time and attention.
Here’s
where this applies to you and me - and directly to our Spiritual
relationship. We can tell God every single day that we love Him. But
if we never show Him through our obedience and service to others
in the name of Jesus, we just as well save our breath. We can claim to
be redeemed sinners…children of the Most High God…and disciples of
Jesus. But if we don’t demonstrate this with our actions and attitudes,
no one will believe us – not even God. We have to “walk the walk” or
our “talk” is just that.
We now have one week until Christmas
Day. Many of us are running around like chickens with our heads cut off
getting ready to make everything as perfect as possible – at least for a
few hours or a couple of days. And in the process, a lot of us are
“only believing.” We are not thinking about those who are sick and
suffering – or lonely. We have tossed a few coins into the red buckets
outside of Walmart, but we really have not considered the long-term
plight of the needy.
We’ve given an “angel gift” for an orphan
or two…but we haven’t thought about what happens to these precious
children each and every day. Some of us have fought to “keep Christ in
Christmas”…and in the process, we’ve been so ugly and arrogant that
we’ve shown others anything but the real face of Jesus.
Let’s
consider the words from this passage in James today - and search our
hearts. Let’s see where we have missed the mark and “talked the talk”
without any “walk” to go with it. We can turn this around…and I can’t
think of a better time than this week leading up to the celebration of
our Savior’s birth. True discipleship could be the best gift we ever
gave to Jesus. What will you be giving Him this Christmas?
©2015 Debbie Robus
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