Get moving

This morning, I was VERY tired. Long day of painting, ball practice, and then late to bed, early to rise to go to the gym. When I got back, my eyes were very heavy. I could hardly stay awake. I wanted to blog, journal, read, pray, etc, but I was struggling! Then, I decided to get up and finish the touch up painting in the kitchen, hang a shelf, etc.Guess what? I am awake! I got moving and now am more awake. Drinking my Spark soon will help too.

It got me to thinking about life and my journey of pursuing Christ and His will. There are days I get overwhelmed, stuck, filled with doubt and fear. When I do that I start to get "inactive" and frozen by fear. I start to drift toward "ruts" and question what God has called me to. Like this morning, when that happens I need to get moving. Get up, go out there and spread the message, meet with people, pursue opportunities, and tell our story.

The Holy Spirit is the "spark" that makes this all happen. Jesus said the Holy Spirit is with us and will guide us and teach us all that He has in store for us. It will also comfort us, lead us toward repentance, and transform hearts and lives.

This is a great lesson for me to keep applying this morning. I don't want to settle for less than God's best. What about you? Let's go. Get moving. Put our faith into action. Lead us Holy Spirit!!

James 2:14-26 The Message (MSG)

Faith in Action

^14-17 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?

 ¹⁸ I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.” Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.

^19-20 Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?

^21-24 Wasn’t our ancestor Abraham “made right with God by works” when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn’t it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are “works of faith”? The full meaning of “believe” in the Scripture sentence, “Abraham believed God and was set right with God,” includes his action. It’s that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named “God’s friend.” Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works?

^25-26 The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn’t her action in hiding God’s spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing—what counted with God? The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.