Activate Your Faith

Activate Your Faith

By Pastor Russell Henderson

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

[James 1:22 NIV]

Last week we examined the danger of only listening to the word and not being obedient.  Jesus called that type of man foolish.  Proverbs calls the same man stupid.   Either way it is very clear that faith without action is useless.  The Christian faith was always intended to be active.  It was never meant to be idle and passive. 

The last part of the verse above says, “Do what it says”.  That word do is an action word that means:  to perform, execute, accomplish, or exert.  The Greek word is poiētēs.  It is where we get our word poet, or poem.  A poem is art, and art is something that is created.  Art doesn’t happen in the mind.  It starts in the mind, but it is not complete until it is visibly or audibly created.  Picasso did not become a great painter by imagining.  He became a great painter when he put brush to canvas.  Mozart did not become a great composer until he notated every note onto paper and then performed it.  When you look at all of these definitions, it is clear that God intends us to be active if we are going to be pleasing in our faith.

Acts 17:28 tells us, “For in him we live and move and have our being….We are his offspring.”   Now look at Ephesians 2:10. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  The Greek word for handiwork is a variation of the same word for do (poem).  So, we could reword this and say we are God’s poem.  You and I are His masterpiece, His opus, His pride and joy.   Why?  Because he put all of His creative power into creating us – you and me.  So according to Acts 17:28, because we are children of God we, therefore, must move in Him.   We must be active in our faith.

So what should we be doing to put our faith to work?  Let’s start with Jesus.  Jesus commands us to Love.  Love God, love others and love ourselves.  James tells us that true religion, the kind that pleases God, is to look after orphans and widows.  He also instructs us to keep ourselves from being polluted by the world.   Paul instructed Timothy in 1 Timothy 6 to flee from greed, false teaching, and vain arguments and pursue righteousness and the things of God.  He also instructed him to fight the good fight and take hold of eternal life.  Peter encourages us in 1 Peter 5 to humble ourselves and resist the devil.

Notice all of these instructions are calls to action.  None of them said, “Well, just sit.  Don’t do anything.  God will take care of everything.”  While it is true that sometimes we need to be still and trust God, there are other things we should be doing while we wait on the Lord:  things like encouraging, serving, and telling others the good news.   Scripture tells us that Abraham was not considered righteous for hearing God’s word, but for obeying it.  When God called Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, he didn’t hesitate.  He immediately went and put his faith to action.  Then he was called God’s friend. 

Take it from me.  Action is hard.  It’s much easier to sit and believe, and it’s hard to take our faith and walk it out.  But that is the type of faith that pleases God, and until we put our faith to action we are like the foolish man who had a great fall.  So choose today to be like the wise man.  Activate your faith and experience the genuine blessings of God.