Works Without Faith Are Dead ... So Don't Try Harder - Faith Harder

My Utmost For His Highest

 

If these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful… —2 Peter 1:8

 

“The right thing to do with godly habits is to immerse them in the life of the Lord until they become such a spontaneous expression of our lives that we are no longer aware of them. [..] Your god may be your little Christian habit— the habit of prayer or Bible reading at certain times of your day. Watch how your Father will upset your schedule if you begin to worship your habit instead of what the habit symbolizes. […] Is there someplace where you are not at home with God? Then allow God to work through whatever that particular circumstance may be until you increase in Him, adding His qualities.”  CHAMBERS

 

The threat to living a life of faith is that the “being” can often be overcome by the “doing”.  Any doing that brings glory to God is always a result of being.  A result of living by faith and walking in obedience to God.  Trying to be good .. to live like a Christian leads to a hollow existence.  The Christian life starts on the inside and is revealed on the outside.  Many Christians try to control the outside hoping that somehow their behavior will change the inside.  We are saved by grace through faith and not of works (Ephesians 2:8,9) and in the same way, we are transformed by the renewing of the inside (Romans 12:2) We must live and do for an audience of One. But there are times when we find ourselves living and doing in a vain effort to gain the approval and acceptance of men and not God.  That is a sure sign that we believe that we can achieve righteousness by trying harder.  And that inevitably leads to hypocrisy.  Trying to convince those from whom we seek approval, that the nature of the inside is manifesting what we allow them to see on the outside.  James said the faith without works is dead (James 2:17), because good works are a natural result of faith.  God has purposed that. (Ephesians 2:10)  But James did not say that works produce faith .. works only give evidence to it.  Works produced by faith have a supernatural ingredient.  They have an eternal quality and they always point others to the source – the Creator God.  Works produced by the flesh on the other hand, have no supernatural quality and merely point people to the one doing the work.  So we might conclude that works without faith are dead.  So we should stop trying and start “faithing”.   CHARLEY