Active Faith: James And The Call To WorksSample

As we started to talk about yesterday, sometimes bodies of water, through erosion and other shifts in nature, become completely landlocked.

These entities, known as endorheic basins or endorheic lakes, have a limited amount of water flowing in (mostly through rainfall and runoff), and no water flowing out. 

The water sits in these basins and lakes with no movement. The only way water can leave the lake is through evaporation. When the sun heats the water to a certain temperature, it becomes a gas and floats right on out of the stagnant pool. 

This process leaves behind all the salt and sediment which would normally be filtered by the process of a flowing stream. Over time, more water escapes, and more salt and sediment build up. This is how we get bodies of “water” like the Dead Sea – basins so full of salt, so thick with sediment, they become almost unrecognizable.

This is how your faith dies without works. 

If your faith is a pool of water being fed (flowed in) by good books, sermons, and Godly influences – it will grow. But in order for it to survive and thrive, it has to also flow out. 

If you are not engaging in regular actions, your faith will become stagnant. It will sit in its own pool of knowledge while the heat of life's frustrations and challenges begin to evaporate the life right out of it. Your faith will become salty and thick; condemning and prideful. And movement will become that much more difficult every day you choose to remain stuck. 

Actions are the answer to keeping your faith alive. To making sure your expectations find the outflow they need for God to show up big in your circumstances. 

The good news is that no matter how long your faith has been stagnant, it can be revived. The flow can be restored, and the extraordinary will begin to fill your ordinary.

If you’ve found this devotional helpful, check out this book to learn more on how to activate your faith!