Why Don’t You Do Something? (Revelations from the book of James)

“So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.” (James 2:24)

I have often wondered what it would be like to have the answers to everything. To know exactly how to have the perfect relationship with God, with my friends, with my family— what would it take? Because the standard is perfection, and we are called to be pure and holy, just like our righteous God. For a long time, I thought that having enough faith was always the right answer, and it would be enough to right any situation; if I believed hard enough, and “trusted” God enough, my own desires would be fulfilled and I would be able to get through anything. All I needed was a little bit of faith, right? And plus, wouldn’t God be pleased with me if I just trusted Him to make everything perfect?

While this seemed good in theory, it proved to be completely untrue. God does not want us to idly sit twiddling our thumbs while our mouths do all of the work. We cry out to Him when things don’t go our way, and yet we sit in the puddle of our own self-despair and wait for Him to clean up our mess. What sort of character does this produce? We demand answers from Him, and explanations for all of our circumstances, and say, “I believe in You! I believe You can fix this!”

Well, great! You believe! “Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.” (James 2:19b)

The standard, like I said, is perfection. The way this is achieved is not through the stagnation of our faith, but through it’s active perseverance, as produced by all sorts of trial and hardship. “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

Endurance. As far as I’m concerned, that comes from the verb “endure”, which implicitly implies action. Actively praying, actively working, actively seeking, and actively living. The circumstances in which you find yourself will not change through simply “having enough faith”. I’m not saying that faith in and of itself can’t move mountains, because of course, it can. Matthew 17:20, “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

However, we are called to pair works and faith together, and through trusting God and carrying out His will, we will find our circumstances changing. So, what do we do, then?

“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” James 1:22

-Kristina (Underground Grad)