Believing.....faith.....good works? How does it all work anyways? Part 3

     So I have "talked the talk" about believing, and I have "talked the talk" about having faith, but can I "WALK THE WALK".  "Walking the Walk" or "Good Deeds" in the Christian life is the most important thing we can do! James 2:26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
Unfortunately the Christian world has a hard time balancing this in our lives.  It is easy to say things, but when the time comes to show our belief, we can grow weak and scared or lazy.  Some may be because we have not yet come to know how true to God's word He is, or maybe because are scared of our own failures and afraid God will not show Himself to us and those around us. 
     Just like any relationship we have, we must step out with action to prove, and be proven to that  we mean what we say.  When you tell someone you love them, the only way they will know is by your actions.  The same goes for our heavenly father! He loved us first and called out to us, in return we responded with the exceptance of His Son and the belief that He died on the cross to save us from our sins, and rose from the dead so that we may have eternal life.  The bible tells us that is all we need to be saved, but the bible also tells us that faith without works is dead.  We as christians can not just walk around saying we are believers and move on peoples lives that way God wants us to be used if we are not active in showing Who Christ is. 
     I have met and regretfully fell for people who all they were was words!  It is such a painful relationship when the other person is only full of empty promises and never delivers them.  I am not saying that I have never done this, but was never my intention to tell someone I will do something or give them something knowing that I will not follow through.  There is nothing more we are to do then worship God and SHOW God to those around us.  When those two components of a believer are joined, God does His work that only He can do. 
     If you are in a place feeling unfullfilled in your walk, it could be that your life is not open to being used at this time which I believe most of us struggle with.  Busy work is not always God's work!  We must learn to weed out the busy work from God's work, it is hard at times when it seems we are busy serving our family all the time.  God first, family second but there are times when God being first will require us to step out of our comfort zone and serve outside the home, maybe in someone elses. He may even want your own family to sacrifice at a uncomfortable level.  This is tough but there is no greater way to show how wonderful God's people are and no greater way to be rewarded in your own life than to go where God calls you to go when He calls you to do it!  Hearing comes from the word of God and works is putting that in to action. 
     The Lord tells us to not grow wearing in doing good but to do all that we do, unto Him.  It is easy to get discouraged when no one around you seems to be getting it, but you have no idea what God is doing behind the scenes in other peoples lives to get them to a place of belief.  That IS God's promise, and knowing that, is what needs to drive us to act "good" to ALL those around us, not just those who act good to us. 
     It is my prayer that you and I together can pray, read, and receive the guidance to lead others to Christ in all our actions and that the devil loses ground all over the world.  We see all the bad actions and it is scary but God has already won!  Lets's win over the lost with love!

Believing.....faith.....good works? How does it all work anyways? Part 2

Faith! Probably one of the most thrown around words of a believer! What does faith actually mean and what does it look like? Hebrews 11:1 tells us that Faith is being sure of what you hope for and believing in what you do not see.
I have faced so many moments where I had to believe in the unseen and act on faith that I would make it!
I was extremely sick growing up and never realized how important my faith was until I was told I was dying at the age of 21.  Faith can really be put to the test....but how else is our Faith muscle exercised??  There would be no other way for God to reveal himself to us as human beings without creating or allowing circumstances to believe in Him and what He is able to do.  If you are anything like me, when things are going great, God becomes smaller, but when disaster hits....uh oh, where is God?  God help me??!!!  We begin to seek and find answers to Gods will, that only He can provide, because He is faithful even when we are not.  We serve a mighty and all knowing God....what doesn't make sense to us...WILL to HIM!
I would love to say that I never let worldy places and worldy people get involved in my faith, but those are the hardest influences to keep out of our decisions about what we believe!  I would also love to say that just believing in GOD of the bible was enough, but it is not! We must learn what the bible says...it IS God Himself who spoke the words and orchestrated what happened in the bible.  The sooner we let ourselves have faith that that is the way it is... the sooner we can obey the word and let it come alive in our lives.  There is no other way to increase your faith, but through obedience to His word.  The more word you have the easier it becomes to make faith based actions. 
The more I am out of the word, the harder it becomes to hear Gods voice about what He wants me to do.  I am there now!  I have not filled myself daily with what He wants for my life so the things I am facing are seeming impossible to do.  They are not I know, but because it is Gods will that I am searching for, these temporary highs of life and valleys of life are not satisfying my goal of having Gods perfect will in my life.  I love the people and places in my life and let that take hold of my daily living instead of learning first what God wants me to do today.  It takes daily giving up yourself and daily taking of Gods self to accomplish the full view of Gods love in our lives. 
To receive the Faith that moves mountains begin with Gods word daily and He will tell you what to pray, where to go, who to love and bring others into your life that will increase your faith...not destroy it!!! 
God bless you today and may the God of love fill your heart with the desire to love and seek him daily! Pray for me as I will be praying for you!!!!!!!