Daily Devotional
Have You Received Life?
“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
James 2:26
January 30, 2024
Ponder This
What good is a body of truth without the life of the spirit? You may say, “I believe this and this and this.” You take all your beliefs and put them together and you’ve got a body of truth. But if there’s no life in that body of truth, it can’t move. The body without the spirit is dead. The body in this illustration is your belief. But if that’s all you have, and you don’t have the Spirit of God in you, then you have no life. What good is a corpse without a spirit? What good is belief without life?
If a person is dead, what would make that person get up and do good works? Wouldn’t he have to have life first? I could fling his arms around and stand him up and make him walk. But what good is that? I’m just manipulating a corpse. Before he can work, he’s got to have life. If he received life and began to walk around again, would his walking around give him life? No. He walks around because he has received life. The works don’t make him alive. He can’t do the works until he gets life. Once he has life, then he has works. And once we have the Spirit, we have life and works.
- How have you seen evidence of your “being alive” because of Jesus?
- Why is it easy to focus on works as the way to get to God?
Practice This
Write down some of the works you do for God. Consider why you do them and ask God to fill you with His life so that these things are a byproduct of living for Him and not an effort to earn from Him.
FOR YOUR GIFT TO THE MINISTRY
Real Truth Never Changes
Real truth never changes, and the truth about government is that it is God who ordains it, leaders who are responsible for it, and citizens who are accountable to it. The privilege of being called Americans comes with significant responsibilities—to God, to each other, and to the world.
