Moving Into 2022 with Faith
In James 2:17, the Bible says, “Even so faith, if it has not works, is dead, being by itself.” This is a simple statement and yet a profound statement. For instance, let’s say that I asked you, “Do you believe this chair will hold you?” Assuming I am not pointing to an imaginary chair, you will assess the chair and make a determination. You may say, “Yes, I believe that chair will hold me.” If you do not sit down in the chair; however, you are either lying or do not understand what it means to believe something. If you truly believed it, you would sit down to show your belief.
Faith is believing in something enough to do something about it. In the case of the chair, I could not climb into your head and see the chemical processes going on and interpret this firing of neurons as your mental agreement that the chair could hold you. The only way I could see this was true is if you actually sat down. This is faith. We ask people today, “Do you believe in God?” They say yes, but do they believe in Him enough to trust Him for their eternity? Do you? How do you know you do? Hopefully, because you have surrendered your life to Him and are living for Him, day by day, as a normal habit of life.
In Luke 2:25-38, two people, Simeon and Anna, show their faith in God by preparing to receive the truth they both felt God had communicated to them. In the case of Simeon, he had been told by God he would not die before the Christ had come. Now what did Simeon do? He could have gone on with life thinking, “Yeah! Right! We have been looking for this guy to come for years.” He could have used the time to make money or power. He chose to spend his time in the courtyard of the temple from the assumption that the Christ, or Messiah, would have to come to the temple sometime. He took action on his belief.
Anna was a woman not unlike Simeon. She understood the grief of a broken heart. She also believed that God understood this pain as well. She had dedicated her life to serving God since the loss of her husband shortly after being married. She believed that God understood so much, that she decided to dedicate her life to Him in His temple, rather than try to remarry.
Both of these examples received the culmination of their faith in that they got to see the Messiah, but up to the point of this event, they had not received the reward, but were living their lives in full expectation the reward was on its way.
As we celebrate this fifth day of Christmas, and look forward to the coming of another year, in what areas of life are you living in faith? Do you believe Jesus is coming soon? Do you believe it enough to do something about it? Are you living in that preparation daily? If not, why not? What needs to change?