Your Purpose 4—Put Your Faith into Action

Your God-given purpose is not simply to have a private faith and belief in Jesus—insurance for eternity and comfort in this world. Your purpose is also to act, respond, react, and serve as one who belongs to God. Faith + Action.

James, brother of Jesus, gives the example of serving those without clothes and food (physical needs)—instead of simply being kind to them.  Belief without being lived out in practical service is, as James says more than once in Chapter 2 of the book named after him, “dead.” He doesn’t give partial credit or say things like “lukewarm” nor “partially alive” but “lifeless.”

If we truly take Jesus at His word, we will be “new” people—transformed. With a way of seeing and acting that is different from how we were before and different from the prevailing world view of “every man for himself.” Jesus changes everything.

If we simply do our Bible studies, and listen to sermons and podcasts, and spend quiet time with God, but do not put what we learn into practice, we aren’t growing and discovering more need to lean into Jesus daily. We are not meant to be monks, but “in the world” (Jesus speaking) and not “just hearers but doers of the word” (Jesus speaking again). Authors Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson say in The Externally Focused Church:

Good nutrition alone cannot make a person healthy.  Good Bible teaching alone is insufficient for spiritual maturity.  People need exercise for physical health and service for spiritual health.  We learn from the Scriptures, but we grow by serving others.

It’s a question of growing to maturity in Christ. By serving. By stepping out. By listening, hearing, and applying.

Pray through James 2:14-26 as your prayer of purpose for yourself and your church community today:

James 2 Faith and Deeds

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

            18 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. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

            20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

            25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Shirley Giles Davis, author of the God. Gifts. You. Your Unique Calling and Design workbook, Your Unique Design Class Guide, Your Unique Design Facilitator Guide, and Gifts-Calling-Purpose blog, is a consultant, coach, facilitator who has worked with faith-based organizations, nonprofit agencies, and leaders in a diversity of fields for over 30 years. She has also been EquipConnectServe Director at her 1,200 member church since 1999.  Contact Shirley.

Photo © Shirley Giles Davis, all rights reserved.