Encore - 1035 - What Do I need to Change Today James 2:26

This is an Encore episode of the Follower of One podcast from our archives. We are on a short break.

Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm your host, Mike Henry Sr. Today. I want to talk about James 2:26, "For as the body, apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead." That's from the English Standard Version.

We talk about work regularly here, but we're not talking about your job today. We're talking about actions that we take because we follow Jesus. James is explaining how we can claim to believe. But if that belief never changes our lives in any way, we're just fooling ourselves or we're trying to. If we claim to believe in Jesus, but we do not change as a result, we don't know him very well. We're not really following him. And I think this sometimes gets mistaken in the tug of war that kind of goes on about trusting God with my salvation. If I trust God with my salvation, then I should live differently. I shouldn't just trust him and relax and not do anything different.

By trusting him it means that I now live differently because I believe that what he says matters. One of those great examples is with the tithe. Do you give some of your money to support the church; to support the work of God? We give a 10th of our income or more. We give whatever we give, because we trust God to do more with the remainder of what we keep than what he would do if we kept it all. It's the same concept behind being closed on Sunday or taking a Sabbath rest day or going to church. If you spend a couple of hours every week going to a local church or being a part of a body of believers so that your relationship with God can grow, God has the ability to use the rest of your time to bless you more than you might possibly be blessed by using all of your own time. God challenges us to give away things from time to time because we trust him. We trust him to do more with what we hang on to.

That's the way I think we're called to be at work. We get a challenge to live our life differently in the workplace. We can give away more than is expected of us. We can do more than our job might demand. We can give to our coworkers and bless our customers or our vendors more. We're free to do that. Today, I want to challenge us. Let's use our true faith and let's ask God to make it cause a change in our lives.

If we claim to be Jesus' followers, let's ask God one quick question right now. "God, what do I need to change today?" Can you ask God that question? The things that come to your mind are from him. You can tell him "No." You can think, " God, I can't really do that." Or "God, you really don't want me to do that today, do you?" This is very convicting to me, because I've been struggling with myself in a particular area as well. And now I need to take action on what I just told you. So, let's ask ourselves one more question.

"What happens if I don't listen to God?"

I want to follow Jesus more and more every day. Do you? Today let's turn to him and follow him. What he puts on your mind today to do, figure out a way to get it done. Do things that glorify him. Do things that you know that he would have you do in your workplace simply because you trust him. Let's follow him. This is between us and Jesus.  My prayer is that today we are each courageous enough to ask this prayer and then act on the answer we hear. You'll be blown away by what happens next.

If you want to be a part of a community of people who are trying to grow in their faith and trying to make a difference in the world that they live in every day, then check us out over at https://followerofone.org. We'd love for you to join our community and join us on the next Marketplace Mission Trip.

Thanks very much.