Today I took a shorter walk and I got to think about living and dead faith. The bible has quite a lot to say on the subject. Dead faith according to James is faith with no deeds, no action. So according to James a living faith is more than mentally believe and speak it with your mouth, living faith is seen by actions, deeds. Not deeds we do to please God but actions we take because we believe in them, we believe

1. God wants us to do them.
2. We want to do them.
3. We are able to do them with God’s help.

Of course the subject tis very wide and hard to even approach in a short blog like this but for example. If I have an average grade of 3.3 counted over all the subjects that is according to my faith not maybe according to my potential but the grades I get is in direct relation to my faith actions. So to raise my grades I have to increase my efforts in studying and that motivation comes from my heart, from what I believe I am able and willing to achieve. Paul writes in Rom 12 about the measure of faith we have. We are to live according to that measure of faith. So if my faith-actions is at 3.3 to increase I have to set a goal according to the faith actions I am willing and ready to stretch myself for.

To dream about 5.0, close my eyes and ask God for a miracle will not give me 5.0 in average grades. Why? Because faith without action is dead! A living faith is a moving faith. Faith that makes me act in accordance to what I believe for. Peter prayed and stretched out his hand and lifted up the lame man at the gate called beautiful, Moses walked all the way from Egypt and stood by the shore of the Red Sea, he stretched out his hands and it divided. There always comes a moment when my faith must come into action if I want to have a living faith.

To just mentally believe and even pray and speak about what I believe for is not enough according to James, we are to move in accordance to what we believe. This give me a balance and soundness in faith which keeps me from moving from faith to prejudice.

Matsjan