December 15, 2024 - James 2:18-20, 23-24

““How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.” You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless? And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God. So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.” James 2:18-20, 23-24 NLT

Lord, as this verse talks about faith, particularly Abraham’s faith, I think there is something key here that we could easily overlook. Give us your understanding of how our faith is tied to Abraham’s relationship with you. Faith is something that is hard to conjure up on our own. We can tell ourselves that we believe you will do some impossible thing in our lives, but somewhere in the back of our mind is often unbelief that you will really do it. It is one thing to say we believe, but a whole other to believe with our whole being. Lord, what it says here about Abraham being called a friend of God, is key. He knew you. He spent time in your presence and didn’t just know about you but had spent time getting to know you and allowing you to grow in him. Faith is birthed in this place of knowing you. The more we know you the easier it is to believe you for the impossible, thus the greater our faith is. We don’t have to make ourselves believe, we know you are willing and capable, so we do believe. When we know you on a deeper level it changes us, and we also begin to live more like you. Doing good deeds naturally comes out of us without us striving to do good. Lord, draw us closer in knowing you and let these things naturally flow out of our lives.

In Jesus name, amen.