Food for Thought Friday:Faith is Action

As I considered our lives in faith and what we do often in the name of faith I had to call into question our motivation. There is the "prosperity gospel" that floats around which is damaging to any young believer which hears it, but there is another equally as damaging-the "give me faith". I hear too many times people exclaiming why they are doing such and such a thing for the Lord because of what they expect to get out of it not because it is His will. If we expect to receive anything more than what He has already abundantly supplied this side of Heaven, we are not walking in faith but in selfishness. This life is not ours and is not to be walked for our glory nor our desires. God has promised to always go with us, He has promised He will supply us with grace each day, He has promised us many things. It is out entitlement that gets in the way. We are a people, not much unlike the Israelites of the wilderness, that secretly demands our expectations be met by a faithful God if we are faithful to follow. That is not how this works just to be clear. We do not dictate at which times we want to receive it all and which times we are okay with Him receiving it all. He is to receive it all, all the time. Our names should not need to exist because they exist in the most important book of all.
I see it playing it out too often that the human side gets ruffled and we forget to humble ourselves in the sight of the Almighty God. We play right into the hands of satan and instead of living our lives worthy of Christ, we begin pursuing the praise and worship of others, living lives worthy of this world. We print "faith" and "pray" on coffee cups and journals that cost $50 and post our pictures of ourselves using them on Instagram so that everyone can see how "spiritual" we are for having the items, yet we spend no time or money doing the things the Scripture tells us to do. That's not faith. That's not the gospel. That's exploiting everything Faith actually stands for and cheapening Christianity in the process.

If we want to talk about faith, I mean really truly talk about faith then we have to wake up and really talk about faith. The world is in turmoil. Our neighborhoods are in chaos. Children are dying and homeless. This is where we begin. This is what Christ has called us to. His Good News is for everyone, remember? His message is to go as far as the corners of the earth. There is not a tear shed that He has not seen. He is waiting on our sleeping hearts to wake up to His calling. He needs our faith to be more than printed shirts and Pinterest boards. He needs our faith to be compassionate action on swift feet. He did not give us a Spirit of fear and excuses, He gave us a Spirit of boldness and action, of prayer and ministry. We are many members but ONE Body working together to accomplish His will, never ever our own. It's time we checked our hearts and our motivations. It's time we checked ourselves rather than everyone else's. It's also time we got going. Faith is action so let's give it some.