Fresh Start June 2016 | Page 21

Get Up “Faith without works is dead.” James 2:20 Nowadays, it’s easy for us to say that we have a lot going on and we are so busy. Yet, I’ve learned, the longer I have lived, that it’s the busiest people that never get anything done. It’s always the person that never has time to do the important things that fill their days with things of less significance. Sometimes we ask God for things, yet our works do not show the need in the prayers that we are requesting. We demand for God to open doors for us, but we don’t even want to use our own energy to get up and walk through the door. So, the scripture says that you are a vain and shallow man. It’s basically saying that you may have the faith, but your faith doesn’t line up with your works. Though you say you’re headed in one destination, you on a totally different route. “Faith without works is dead,” is simply saying that what we are saying and what we are doing is not lining up. Don’t be a bipolar Christian. Don’t say you want one thing and when God gets ready to give it to you, you start walking in another direction. Don’t say that you want to be saved, sanctified and souled out for the Savior and every time we get an opportunity to sin, we take it and say the devil’s way seems to be a bit easier than God’s way. We can’t play for both teams. I’m not saying we won’t ever mess up. What I am saying is our destination and our route has to match up. You can’t get to Canada, going through Mexico. Unless, of course, you started out somewhere south of Mexico. We can’t get to heaven, wondering around in hell. Today I want to encourage you to get up! Move in the direction today that you want to go. Get up and trust God to do the rest. Do what you can. The Book of Ephesians says, “now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Yet, to get to this promise, we have to have already done all that we can. Then, hand it over to Him and allow God to do more than what we ever could. So, do what you can....allow God to do the rest. Don’t ask God to do the rest until after you’ve done the little that you can. 21