Is your Faith dead?

“But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭2:29‬ ‭ESV‬‬

If I say I’m Christian. Or we think we are. We must be Christians inside. What are my thoughts like? What do I think about during the day? Do I have anger? Jealousy? Immoral thoughts? What is going on in my heart? Is it pure? 28th verse says that no one is a Jew just outwardly, same here. I can’t just be a Christian doing religious things but in the inside far away from God. I can’t dress up and look like a Christian and live like the world does. People do that. Sadly I do that a lot. I try to look good before others. I try to not put shame on myself and my family. Our church is also a lot focused on the outward of a person. You have to dress like this, can’t talk like that, you can’t do this, you must behave a certain way, but we oftentimes forget about the most important thing is about the inside. You changing the outside of a person doesn’t make him Christian. The inside first has to change. And we can’t do that. Jesus can. So what do we do? We point them to Jesus! We tell them that they need to give their lives for Christ! That they need to work on keeping their thoughts clean. Motives clean. Focus on the inside. And when we do that, the outward part of that person will change. You won’t have to tell them “bro you need to change your clothes. You need to change your language” and stuff like that. They will change automatically because if the inside changes then the outside will 100%!! We try doing the opposite a lot of times. We try to change the outward of a person and expect the inside to change. No. We must have their inside changed. I must have a prayer life. Am I a hypocrite? Am I who I say I am? Am I doing God's will? If I’m not I must humble myself and come before the Lord. Ask Him what He wants, not me. In this short post, my main message is to challenge you today. If you say one thing but don’t do it, it’s pointless. It is meaningless. Just like James 2:17 says, “So also faith by itself if it does not have works, is dead.” It’s simply “dead.” It’s not that my faith is “asleep” or “weak” or whatever. It’s literally dead! I’m not saved by works, I'm saved by faith like Ephesians 2:8 says. Like one said, “you were not saved by works, but for works.” If I love Jesus, I will have works. If I believe in God and have faith, I WILL serve Him out of everything. They simply go together. You can’t have one or the other. It’s like a car. You want a car to be a car, you need wheels and an engine. You can’t have one or the other. God bless and act upon what you know.