Tonight I listened to a podcast by Mikhaila Peterson and Jonathan Pageau titled “Finding God”. The specific topics they discussed weren’t exactly the things that were spinning in my head while listening to a certain segment of their podcast. Ever have that happen to you? Where you are listening and the speaker says one sentence that drives your mind instantly towards a realization that you’ve been trying to articulate and make sense of?
Mikhaila and Jonathan’s discussions inspired me and brought thoughts from all aspects of my life together towards a final realization of what I have always known but not quite fully understood: faith must be accompanied by action. What is the importance of having faith and why is it that faith without works is dead? James 2:14-26
Without faith in what could be possible and without faith in what could, quite possibly, actually exist already (*ahem* God), you will never find out whether it could become- or is already- reality. You have to act on faith in order to find out. You have to have faith and take action towards a manifestation of a vision and hope in your mind before you will understand its realization.
Ok, let me lay out more thoughts by bringing in some real-world examples, because I’m not writing solely about the saving kind of faith. I’m pointing out a parallel between our earthly world and having a relationship with God that produces fruit in your life.
Yeonmi Park, a North Korean defector, had a sort of faith that there would be food for her- food!- if she daringly crossed over into China from where she had seen fireworks and smelled food from her home in North Korea. In North Korea, Yeonmi and her older sister hunted for locusts to eat and had lived their lives on so little food. She was given a glimpse of what could be and she acted on a sort of “faith”. She had a meager faith (as big as a mustard seed, you could say) in something as basic as food, that when she acted on that faith it transformed her life forever. In North Korea, the citizens are propagandized that their country is the richest in the world and that they are better off economically than anyone else! Their government purposely suppresses their minds to the point that there is little chance of them having the faith and vision for a better life.
As another example, if you have become too cynical and believe it’s a wasted effort trying to make friends anymore, that’s exactly what will happen for a long while until you are lucky enough to find a person who actually does still have an enduring faith in what friendship can really be. You’ll hardly have any friends if you’re too cynical and have lost faith and hope for what sort of friendships could be possible.
If you have had too many bad experiences in churches and have given up on trying altogether, you will never find a church that is alive, restoring, and serving like it’s meant to. Nathan and I had just enough faith left that we might finally find a church that would feel like home. Just this past year we became members of the best church I’ve ever been a part of and it feels like home. It is a church that restores, holds each other accountable, serves the community, and most importantly, preaches the Truth from God’s Word.
Nathan and I have had serious discussions this past year about whether we really want to bring children into this world. We have considered solely adopting children. Yesterday I realized that the mind not to have children because of fear for the future is a defeated, hopeless, and faithless way to look at life. I have faith in God, and with that, I have faith that all things are possible through Him. I have faith through God that life can continue to be good despite the hardships and terror that could come to us and our children (adopted or not) amidst life’s beauty.
If you believe deep down that you are destined for bad things to continually happen to you and that life is meaningless, you lose faith and vision for what could be and what actually exists (God *elbow elbow*) out there waiting for you to discover. You have no hope, so therefore there is scant faith there in your soul to act on. If you muster the faith and believe it is possible that your life could be better, you will act on that faith and discover the Way (John 14:6) that makes your life joyful. If you are hopeless, you take no action because you falsely believe that there’s nothing that will make a positive difference in your life.
So in a Christian sense and in a practical sense, faith without works is dead. That is because if you don’t truly believe and hope in something, you won’t act upon it. When you believe in God and that the Bible is true, you will do your best to try to live out the truth through God’s grace and you will produce “fruit” like the Bible talks about in John 15:5. In your day to day living, if you keep your head up and look forward with hope and faith that your world can be better, you will take action to make it better.
When you look at a desert in the heat of summer, you’d never believe without prior knowledge that there could ever be plentiful blooms in such a place. Yet, in the spring the desert is carpeted in blooms. There’s more to life than what meets the eye. With faith, God can change a desert soul into a beautiful garden. So, what do you believe is possible? With God, all things are possible. Matthew 19:23-30.
“Desert in Bloom, Joshua Tree NP 3-19” by inkknife_2000
If you want wisdom and to know what the truth is, open the Bible. There is more condensed truth in the Bible than you can find anywhere else.
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Hebrews 11:6
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
James 2:26
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.
Romans 10:17
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
John 15:5
Here’s the podcast I mentioned earlier. Even if you don’t agree with everything they say, it’s good to get those gears grinding.
richenlife.wordpress.com 