Feed Your Faith

March 19

Read: James 2:14-25

Feed Your Faith

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” (v.14)

“But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (v.18)

Saving faith… Christian faith… never travels alone. It can’t. Faith and works always go together. It is like the relationship between our soul and our body. The one cannot live without the other. There are no “soul-less” bodies walking around…alive here in our realm. Faith cannot survive apart from works. The scriptures say so:

“So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (v.17)

“For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” (v.26)

It is interesting to consider that our “faith” can die. The sad truth is that we see this every day, all around us. Sometimes we say things like, “They lost their faith…” as if they misplaced it like their car keys or simply handed it over to someone else. The scriptures seem to paint a slightly different picture, namely that faith dies. That means when we say that someone has “lost their faith” what we are really saying is that their faith has been allowed to die… they “lost their faith” like they ”lost their grandfather” or a family member who has passed away.

When we realize that faith is something that is living, it makes sense that it needs works to stay alive! In a certain way, works are what “feed” our faith and keep it strong and vital. Have you been feeding your faith? Is it strong and active? Calling back to our previous devotion in James: are you a hearer of the word only, or are you a doer also? (cf. James 1:22-25) Nourish your faith today with the good works that the Lord puts in front of you. Feed you faith! Love you guys. - JDP