Faith Without Works is Dead

What is the use, my brethren, for anyone to profess to have faith if he has no good works to show for it? Can such faith save his soul?

If a brother or sister is poorly clad and lacks food for each day,

And one of you says to him Good-bye! Keep yourself warm and well fed, without giving him the necessities for the body, what good does that do?

So also faith, if it does not have works, deeds and actions of obedience to back it up, by itself is destitute of power, inoperative, dead. James 2:14-17

The original Greek word for works is ergon (er'-gon) and means; an act, deed, doing, labor, work.

Faith is something that does not stand alone. There must be some kind of "doing" behind it to make it work, otherwise it is dead! Following is an example of faith that works and faith that is dead.

FAITH THAT WORKS:

Mary has just lost her job due to downsizing. She is a single Mother and is in desperate need of a job. She calls out to God and asks for favor in her search for a job. She hits the pavement every day. And every day she prays and believes that God will provide for her and her children. By the second week, Mary gets a job that pays better than the one she lost.

FAITH WITHOUT WORKS = DEAD:

Mary has just lost her job due to downsizing, She is a single Mother and is in desperate need of a job. She calls out to God and asks Him to help her. She looks through the paper and makes a few calls a day. Then she sits on the couch and watches soap operas while waiting for some one to call her. She puts forth no real effort. She just expects it to happen. She then gets angry at God for not giving her a job. After all she asked and believed didn't she?

You can believe and believe and believe and never receive. If you do not step out and DO, then your faith is worthless and dead. Even when we accept Jesus as our Savior, it requires us to step out in faith and confess our sins and believe that we are saved. It requires an action. If we never opened our mouth to confess and receive then we would never have received Salvation.
It is the same for everything that we are believing for....

If we are believing for healing, then we need to be reading books and gaining knowledge about ways to promote healing, or we need to be attending healing services on a regular basis and keep pressing in. Oh, yes! God still heals miraculously today!

If we are believing for a job promotion, then we need to show up for work on time every day and put forth that extra effort. We need to be working as unto the Lord.

If we are believing for a financial miracle, then we need to be exploring practical ways to increase our income and gain wealth. We need to be good stewards with the money that we have now. We need to thankful.

The point is that no matter what we are believing God for, we need to speak it out every day, open our arms to receive, and step out and do (responsibly, of course).

Let's Pray,

Daddy God, than You that You want to keep no good thing from me. Thank You for sending Your Word to teach and help me to understand Your ways. Daddy, I ask that You would help me to slowly but surely build my faith. Help me to live from faith to faith to faith. Thank You so very much for loving me. In Jesus Mighty Name, Amen.

Copyright © Lara Velez

Note: All Scripture is taken from the Amplified Bible, unless otherwise stated. Also, the Webster's dictionary, Random House Thesaurus, Strong's Concordance, and/or The Complete New Testament Word Study may have been used.