IS YOUR FAITH EQUIVALENT TO THE FAITH OF A DEMON?

BIBLE PASSAGE:
You believe that there is one God. Good! 
Even the demons believe that—and shudder. 
(James 2:19)

MEDITATION:
The scripture tell us that if a demon was asked 
if he believes that God exists, he would say, “Yes”.
If a demon was asked if he believes there is only one God, he would say, “Yes”.
However, if a demon was asked if he was willing to surrender 
his life to the Lord and serve Him, he would reply with a resounding, “No!”

That is what separates a demon and from a committed Christian.
Demons intellectually believe in the existence of God, 
but they are not willing to have a committed relationship with Him.
It’s as if they have an attitude of, 
“God I know you exist but I’ll just continue to do the things I want to do. 
Find someone else to serve you, but not me”.

Sadly, there are many who profess their dedication to the Lord, 
but there is no evidence that He is active in their lives.
If you ask them if they believe there is a God, and there is only one God, 
they will quickly answer, “Yes”, but they are not willing to serve Him
(which is evidence of their commitment and surrender to the Lord).

James tells us that what we do for the Lord 
is confirmation of our faith in Him.
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have 
faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? (James 2:14)
Some misinterpret his message to say that we are saved by our deeds.
That is not what James is saying at all.
He tells us that first comes faith, and then comes deeds.
Deeds don’t save us, but they confirm that we have been saved.

He continues His message by telling us that if we are not 
serving the Lord in come capacity, then our faith is dead.
In the same way, faith by itself, 
if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:17)

James says that our faith is shown by our deeds.
Deeds are confirmation of the sincerity and commitment of our faith.
Have you ever heard someone say, “Call me if you need me.”
but when you call them, they say they are too busy to help you?

Satan can cause busyness to create a lack of commitment for us as well.
How many times have we felt the urge to do something for the Lord,
but decided that we just do not have the time required to serve the One 
who spent three hours on the cross dying so that we could be forgiven.

James tells us that we have the opportunity to ‘show’ our faith by our ‘deeds’.
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith 
without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. (James 2:18)
If we do not ‘show’ our faith, then we are only ‘saying’ we have faith.

ACTION:
The truth is, the more ‘stuff’ we have to help us save time, 
the less time we seem to have.
As a result, we have to assign priorities to the things we do.
What could possibly be a higher priority than 
obeying God’s Word to, show our faith through our deeds?

Every professing Christian should have this at the top of their ‘to do’ list.
Serving the Lord should not be an “in addition to” other things, 
it should be first, and other things should be an “in addition to” serving Him.
In an effort to avoid obeying the Lord, some want to redefine the message 
from James in order to excuse themselves from a commitment to serve.
But, the message is clear and concise, and if it was incorrect in any way,
the Lord would not allow it to be included in His Word.

Pray,
“Heavenly Father, I have neglected Your command to serve for way 
too long. Today I want to commit myself to serving You in whatever 
capacity You have chosen for me. Forgive me for not showing my faith
through my actions, and help me to start living a life so others can 
see that my faith in You is genuine. You are the most important in my 
life. Thank You for Your gift of salvation!”

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