Someone has said, “You cannot have faith without obedience.” There is so much truth in that. The Bible says in James 1:22 “ But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” We must have faith in God that He will provide and guide but we must also realize that many time we must act on our faith. James 2:18 says, “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” This is not talking about our salvation. It is simply stating the obvious. If you really believe something then you will act on it. It means that you will do what God says.
When I used to do tractor work, the brush-hog I used had a shear bolt on it. This bolt was on the shaft that turned the blades, and its job was to break if the blade got jammed or bogged down so the gears wouldn’t be ripped out of the brush-hog. However, once this shear bolt broke, the brush-hog was useless until you could put a new one in. Obedience is the shear pin that all of our faith rest upon. If it breaks we are not going anywhere. If we don’t have it we are never going to see the result of our faith. If we really do believe God and put our faith in Him, then we are going to do what He says. It is easy for me, a guy from the south, to say I am going to do things that I have absolutely no intentions of doing. I may be smiling and nodding when someone is talking to me, but inside I am saying, “You are crazy and I would never do that”. I have found this very true when I go and invite people to church. Out of the hundreds of people that say they are going to come, only one or two show up. We all like to say “yes” we are going to serve God. We all like to say “yes” we are going to live totally for Jesus. We all like to tell ourselves that we are doing what God wants, when in fact many times we are living in disobedience. I know in my life I have found that many times I will tell myself that I must be in obedience to Jesus because look at how much more I am doing than those other people. I read my Bible every day so I must be an obedient Christian. I go to church more than anybody else so I must be in God’s will. I am helping at church so I must be doing all that God wants me to. In fact, over two years ago I knew that God wanted me to be a missionary. However, it wasn’t till last year that I decided to join the Our Generation Training Center and begin to study for missions. That whole time I believed that God wanted me to do something. I had faith that God was leading me. However, it wasn’t until I obeyed that any progress was made. That is just one example.
I think we all know of things in our lives that we need to change or some ministry that God wants us to start and we tell ourselves, “Wow, look at how spiritual I am for thinking that I could go start witnessing down at the trailer park.” We think these thoughts and never go and do anything. We think, “I should stop hanging out with my friends that are funny but are not helping my walk with God.” but we never do. We think, “I should read through the Bible twice this year.” But then we let days go by without picking it up. Obedience measures the real factor in our lives. John 8:31-32 says, “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” You see many of the Jews said they believed on Christ, but Jesus knew the real test would be whether or not they obeyed Him. The same is true in our lives. If you are a true disciple of Jesus you better be acting on your faith. You must put feet to your words or it doesn’t matter what you say. God wants obedient Christians not Christians with big mouths and big heads who think they know everything and do nothing.
In conclusion, what in your life shows that you really believe God? You may say that you believe that God wants us to get the Gospel to the world. Where in your actions can I see this belief? You say that your life revolves around the Bible. Have you even read it through once? I am saying these things as a guilty man. I need to always be working to line up my actions with what I believe. If I really believe something, then I better be acting on it. Obedience is a crucial factor in every Christian’s life.
Kason Bloom