Active Faith

James 2:18 “But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

What a challenging verse to those of us who claim to follow the Lord Jesus. Show me your faith apart from your works? If a person claims to have faith in the Lord, but does not produce fruit, then how else is one to know that this person belongs to the Lord other than what they communicate it verbally? Or worse yet, what if a person professes faith, but produces bad fruit? Surely this does not bring honor to the Lord.

A prayer that I frequently ask God to help me with is centered around James 2:18. I ask that others will know that I love the Lord by my actions. I want my life to be a living testimony, a living witness of what the Lord has done inwardly in me. I want my faith to be justified like the faith of Abraham. “You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works” James 2:22.

May I always strive to have an active faith. A faith that produces the fruit of the Spirit and brings honor to God: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.