Faith Is Active

By Rick Warren

When will you ever learn that “believing” is useless without doing what God wants you to? Faith that does not result in good deeds is not real faith. James 2:20 (LB)

Is faith simply a frame of mind? Some see it that way … a passive attribute of a Christian waiting to see what God has in store for you: a promotion, cancer, depression, betrayal, blessing, wealth, or injustice. They might say, “I’ll just wait to see what God is going to do for me and go with the flow.” That’s crazy talk.

Faith is active. It’s not passive. It’s a commitment. Look at your lifestyle and see what kinds of actions follow as a result of it. If you’ve got the real stuff, faith can be demonstrated.

When you were baptized you made a statement to God and the people around you. You said, “I’m in!” But it doesn’t stop at baptism – not by a long shot! What else do you do? You start following the pattern of Jesus. Faith is proven by how we live. Don’t misinterpret this. What you do – your walking around, everyday life – doesn’t get you into heaven. It doesn’t make you saved. It doesn’t mean you’re a Christian; it shows you are a Christian. The next steps:

Celebrate the lavish gift of grace. You were saved because Jesus is crazy about you and wants you to be with him in heaven. Revel in it!

• Show your faith. Wedding rings don’t make you married, but they say yes in a visible way. In the same way, baptism isn’t the thing that will get you into heaven but it’s an act of obedience. (Jesus commanded us to baptize and be baptized.)

• Share your faith with the people around you. If you are excited about what God has done in your life, then why not share it? There are lots of ways to do that. Get plugged into serving God. There are literally millions of possibilities. Point people to Jesus and love them like Jesus did. It’ll be something you will relish for eternity.