2021 Fast Day Eleven

Day #11

 

James 2:14-17 MSG “Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?”

 

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite games to play was matching. You know the game that is all about memory? Where you turn over a pair of cardboard pieces in hopes that they match? What James is instructing us here is that when people turn over our actions and our speech, they should find a match. And it shouldn’t take several tries. The next couple of days we are going to be taking a closer look into our faith. Remember our Say Less devo? Well, here we are again. Seems that if it is important enough to keep mentioning in the Bible, odds are…we probably need the instruction.  We want to be men and women of God whose lives speak for themselves. We want to live our faith out loud by who we are, what we do, and let our speech follow that up. I fear sometimes we have this order in reverse. We talk a big talk, but our walk can lack luster.  This week, let’s press in together. Let’s be individuals of great faith whose walk matches our talk.

 

Consecration: Passivity

 

How often are we met with a friend, family member, maybe even a co-worker who is in need and we think we will get to them later? Maybe someone even stops you to ask you for prayer…today we are going to resist saying I’ll pray for you or with you. Today, we are going to stop everything else we are doing and meet the need now, pray the prayer now, lend the hand now. Today, we are going to get out of our comfort zone, set aside our fear of possibly not saying or doing the right thing, and we are going to do SOMETHING. More often times than not, people just want to know you are there. We don’t have to have all the right words, or make the perfect gesture, we just need to care. Today let your faith lead the way and when opportunities present themselves, seize them!