TODAY IS…

the perfect day to show that your faith is alive.

“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”  James 2:26 KJV

Evidence of faith that is bursting with life is all around us.

Individuals abound who give of themselves daily for the betterment of their fellow man. Sometimes they can see the recipients of their faith, while other times those recipients may be in a distant place, unseen and unknown. But they prove that their faith is alive on a daily basis through their contributions of love, time, labor and money, and those contributions are made not out of obligation or in attempt to earn God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness, but because of a heart that has been changed by God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness.

If one were to focus only on the news that is printed in newspapers and shown daily on television, it would be easy to succumb to the notion that faith is truly dead on this earth. It would be easy to believe that violence, poverty, immorality, dishonesty and pain are the order of the day and are the conditions that rule this planet.

Thankfully, this is simply not the case. It is an unfortunate fact that all of the above conditions do exist in shameful abundance all around us. This is, after all, the devil’s “playground” and he is constantly scouring the earth seeking out new “playmates.”

Just imagine how wonderful it would be if those same newspapers and television stations that bombard us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with the worst of what man is capable of were to only feature stories of people reaching out to help other people. Just imagine how it would be if the worst of people was the infrequent story that was shown instead of the infrequent story being the occasional “feel good” story that the media squeezes in now.

The fact that we are constantly shown how bad humanity can be only serves to make things worse. It provides us with negative behavior as examples for our children, and even us, to follow. It also serves to quell the flames of hope that could be fanned to burn brightly, if only we were shown more of man’s humanity towards man.

More examples of a faith that is vibrant and alive would help to teach the world that faith alone is simply not enough. One cannot truly have faith in, and an understanding of, God without being changed inside. The change within us then creates a need to reach out to others and share our good fortune, our good health and God’s Good News.

It creates a burning desire to bring life to our faith.

Perhaps what is needed is for people of living faith to turn off the news and throw out the newspapers and go out and demonstrate to others that “Talk is cheap…” (Ecclesiastes 5:7a NLT) and that faith is a living thing that requires the good works of all of us towards others for sustenance.

Keep your faith alive by turning off the bad news and turning on the “Good News!”

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson