Living out your faith
YA’LL! Welcome to the blog!
I am so excited for today, because we are talking about living out our faith!!
“But don’t just listen to God’s Word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the Word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.” James 1:22-25
I first want to give you 2 scenarios.
A new movie just came out, and it is one of the best movies that you have EVER seen! You’ve watched it almost every single day for the past week because you love it so much! But, you don’t tell anyone about this movie. In fact, everyone who has seen it doesn’t share how amazing it is. Because of that, only a select number of people know that it exists!
You have discovered this new brand that makes the best clothes! So, you tell everyone! But, you never wear clothes from this brand. You tell everyone how amazing they are, but the people you’ve told never see you wearing the clothes . Because of that, they think you are lying, and so they don’t wear the clothes either.
Let’s break this down. In instance one, you discovered something amazing, but didn’t share it with others. In instance two, you told everyone about something amazing, but you yourself didn’t include that in your life. This is what happens when we don’t live out our faith. We either live like scenario one: Jesus changes your life and you love Him so much, but you don’t tell anyone about Him. Or scenario two: you tell everyone about how awesome Jesus is, but you don’t live for Him. We need to combine these two actions- both TELLING people about Jesus, and LIVING for Him!
Why is this important? In Matthew chapter 28, Jesus tells us to “go and make disciples.” He calls us to be like “a city on a hilltop,” (Matthew 5:14) and to “explain these things to others” (1 Timothy 4:6).
If we are really Christians, then we will obey the Word by telling people about it and living it out! If we truly love the Lord, we will obey His commandments and honor Him with our words and actions! And when we choose to live a life that honors the Lord, then we will grow in our relationship with God and our faith!
And y’all when we do choose to live out our faith, the Lord takes us on this wild adventure! He may lay a scripture on your heart to tell that person in Target, or to go and pray for that person at the school lunch table! When we are faithful to display our love and passion for Jesus, people notice the difference and will want what we have! That is when we can tell them about the best message of all- the message of Christ dying on the cross for our sins!
Let’s not be afraid to show the people around us the amazing love of Jesus! I don’t want to stay comfortable any more, I want to get uncomfortable for Jesus! I know this sounds backwards, but when we step out of our comfort zone, that is where our faith grows! I don’t know about y’all, but I want my faith to grow more and more every day!
My prayer has been “Lord let me be a coin in your pocket, spend me how you want to. Ignite the fire in me afresh this morning, and put a new burden for souls inside of me. I want to share you goodness with others today, and so I pray that you would help me stomp on the fear of man when it tries to creep in, and help me be as bold as a lion in telling others about you!” I encourage you to pray this with me!
Another thing I want to mention, is a portion of scripture. In Luke 6:43-45 it says:
“A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thorn-bushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.”
People will know us by our actions, and the fruit of our lives. Our lives with be evidence of what is in our hearts: what we believe, what we live by, who we love, who is our Lord and Savior! So, I want to ask you a question. Is your life producing good fruit, or bad fruit? Here are some examples of good fruit:
Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control (Galations 5:22-23)
And yes, we are all human. We all mess up because we are imperfect people. The point is- is that we are pursuing a life that is both honoring to God, and that is reaching the people around us by demonstrating what it looks like to live for Jesus!
I also want to crush a lie that can easily creep in: you are inadequate to share the message of Jesus. This is a lie that I had to squash, because I thought that I couldn’t share the gospel until I was a certain age and had certain ministry training. It says in 1 Timothy 4:12,
“Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.”
This verse is just a mic-drop. It’s absolute gas. ;) If you are young, God still wants to use you! The same Holy Spirit that is in a 50 year old is in a 12 year old too! So, don’t let any feelings of inadequacy or unqualification stop you from telling others about Jesus! If you love Jesus, want to live life with Him, and share that with others, it doesn’t matter how old you are! Don’t wait, choose this now- and live out your faith.
Thank you so much for reading friend! I hope this inspired you to live out your faith today! My challenge for us this week is to share the gospel with at least 3 people! I love ya’ll so much, and Jesus loves you more!
