James 2:14 says, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?"
Deeds or works, as us Christians call it, can trip us up sometimes. For many years I had the mindset that works should be something big like feeding the homeless or building houses for them, taking in an orphan or opening our own orphanage, traveling the world preaching the Gospel and digging wells for clean drinking water at the same time.
I have often had the attitude of "If what I'm doing today isn't making a difference in someone else's life 'right now', then I don't want to do anything", and I don't do anything--anything BIG.
I go through my life day-in and day-out. I seek the Lord every morning before I start my day, before the kids awake and the crazy begins. I pray for them, my husband and God's will in my life. I pray about other things, too, but these three are constant. I also give thanks to the Lord (even when I don't feel thankful) because the Bible tells us to and it makes a difference in my attitude.
So what about those works? James goes on to tell us about Abraham's obedience to the Lord when he offered his only son Isaac on the alter. He also talks about Rahab the prostitute offering the spies lodging and sending them off in a different direction. Abraham and Rahab weren't out there looking to do something big for the Lord. They simply obeyed the Lord right where they were.
This is what I strive for.
I love the second part of verse 18 "Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do." He goes on to say in v 22 "You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did."
Sometimes the Lord will call us to do the Big things, or what we consider big. But he may be waiting for one little thing, one small act of obedience that leads to another.
