Martin Luther King Jr. said that life's most persistent and urgent question is:
"What are you doing for others?"
Have you ever read a Bible verse and felt the Holy Spirit kind of slap you on the wrist a little? As I sat in my office today I felt compelled to open up the Bible and just begin reading. I spent about thirty minutes just scanning through verses and books. Then my eyes gazed across James chapter 2 and I read these words...
"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
After reading these words I became very convicted. I asked myself the question "How many people have I helped in the last week? month? year?" The truth is, not very many. Sure I help people at church do Bible studies and I help the youth group grow closer to Christ. But I think the deeds that James is talking about here is more than that. I think he is talking about helping the helpless.
James even goes on to say that demons have faith. The fact is that faith without deeds is useless. Now I know prayer is effective, and God answers prayer. But if our works stop at prayer then there is a problem. You see, how good is it to pray for the poor, homeless, and hungry but then to never actually do something about it? Just the other day I passed a man pushing a shopping cart carrying what seemed to be all of his possessions. My heart went out to that man, I felt bad for him. But folks God does not call us to feel bad for people...He calls us to help them.
So my question for you today is the same question that James and MLK knew was so important.
What are you doing for others?
Lord, give us faith that surpasses belief. A faith where we not only believe, but we respond.
Jordan: First of all I love you. And the this is one of the reasons I married you. You have such an amazing heart and I am glad to be able to spend the rest of my life with you and growing in these ways with you and for the Lord.
ReplyDeleteI passed by the man who always stands at the corner by Bob Evans and Wal-mart. I have passed by him many times and thought to myself every time, I wish I could help somehow. I never stop the car to throw out any change because there is always a line behind me and it would be "way to much to hold up traffic". And I even once thought I should go buy him something from sonic and give it to him. Then my pride, fear, lack of trust, uncertainty that he would even appreciate it tells me to just keep driving. This is not the attitude James has challenged me to have! These reasons are surely not the ones that would keep Jesus from doing something about it.
Love you! Thanks for the post...Lets do something for him next time we pass by that man.
Jordan, you are absolutely right. I see people like this in warsaw and I cry for them. On one of the cold days i saw this man walking. He looked like he was really cold although he had a coat and hat. I wanted to stop and give him my gloves, but realized that they were girly gloves...why would he want girly gloves? but in all reality...they were just gloves. I don't think he would care what "kind" they were. We do need to put away our selfishness and pride and just do something about it. I am convicted of this alot but i also do my part to help, but there is much more that needs to be done. thanks for the reminder! :) Stacy
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