Show Me Your Faith

"But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!  Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?  You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;  and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.  You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.  And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?  For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead."
James 2:18-26
 
I started college this semester (only one class, but, hey, you gotta start somewhere, right?).  Take me, a Christian teenage girl who grew up home schooled in a Christian household, and put me in the middle of a 16 college students and a professor in a pottery studio (yes, I'm taking a pottery class as my first college class).  Besides learning to make bowls, I think the biggest lesson this class has taught me thus far is how dependent I am upon Jesus, and how different he has made me from the world. 
 
I went into this class knowing it would be a whole new experience for me.  Not only because it's college, but because it is a place totally outside of my comfortable circle of  Christian friends.  Every time I have been in the workshop for the past few weeks, there has been extensive cussing, as well as discussions about sex, homosexuality, drugs, and etc..  Had God not prepared me for this, I'm pretty certain I would have gone into complete culture shock. 
 
Prayerfully, I have begged God to give me courage, wisdom, patience, and love for my classmates.  I have failed multiple times to be intentional to glorify God with opportunities in class.  Despite my failures, he has answered my prayers!  He has shone through me in class, and my classmates are taking notice!
 
It did not just happen, though -- them seeing Christ in me.  It took effort.  I have spent hours in prayer.  I prayed that God would empty me of myself, and fill me with him.  I prayed he would give me a selfless servant's heart.  I prayed for patience... courage... wisdom... you get the idea.  However, I didn't stop there.  Prayer is not a place were you stop.  It's where you start.  I intentionally made the effort in class to serve.  If someone needed something, I tried to be quick to offer help.  If someone was getting discouraged, I did my best to give a word of encouragement or praise.  I wanted those around me to see that when I said I was a Christian, I meant it. 
 
Today, while alone with one of the girls from my class that I have been forming a fairly good relationship with, she said something that really encouraged my heart.  She said, "You know what I love about you?  You say you're a Christian, and you act like it.  I know people who say they are Christian, but really, they only act it on Sunday.... I feel like you try to be that way all the time. and I love that! I can believe you when you say that you are a Christian."
 
My heart gushed with happiness!  I have only known this girl for a month.  The fact that all the effort I was putting forth for my faith was actually showing... and people were taking note of it... I am just so in awe of God!! I have been learning to show my faith by works like never before in my life!!  It has been a struggle, not to mention exhausting, but oh how sweet the work of the Lord is!! Each week I come home with new stories of God's faithfulness and goodness.  He continues to amaze me, and leave me craving for more of him.
 
I share all this with you for two reasons -- The first is to show you that, when you show your faith by your works, people take notice.  People are watching you, especially when you claim to be a child of God.  When you say you're a Christian, but your life doesn't back up what your mouth says, no one is going to believe a word you say.  So be conscious of your actions.
 

Secondly, I want to encourage you to serve others for the purpose of the gospel.  Tonight my youth pastor discussed how when we serve, but the spread of the gospel is not the desire of our heart, our good works are pointless.  We serve to build relationships; in those relationships, we gain the trust of others, that they might listen to us when we share with them the hope and truth of the gospel.  We serve because we genuinely care about everyone God created in his image.  We serve not for ourselves, but for the glory of God in every way.  We serve because we genuinely care about everyone God created in his image.  We serve not for ourselves, but for the glory of God in every way. 

I hope by reading this you were encouraged and/or challenged in some way.  If you need some guidence on how to live selflessly, here are some Bible verses to get you started.  Please comment if you would like more verses, or have any questions!

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."   Ephesians 4:2

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."  1 Corinthians 13:4-7

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Put on then, as God's chosen onesholy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."  Colossians 3:1-17