The Central Moment

Sometimes it’s easy to forget how powerful our prayers are. We may get discouraged if we’ve prayed for someone and we didn’t see the answer that we had hoped for, but James encourages us that we have the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of prayer on our side. God’s word gives us permission to boldly believe for healing to come.

It’s hard to never say anything that you shouldn’t. So, we must be doubly careful about what we email, tweet, or post. Jesus said that what comes out of our mouths is actually an overflow of what’s in our hearts. So we must guard our hearts.

As we’ve seen already this week, James is all about a faith that is accompanied by actions! No matter who you are and where you’ve come from, you can’t escape the principle that true faith must be demonstrated by your actions… in today’s language: “Put your money where your mouth is!”

In today’s look at the book of James, we’re once again confronted by his very direct teaching on how we should live. James reminds us that we have an opportunity and obligation to show compassion without favoritism to those in need… if we truly do believe in loving our neighbor as ourself, then we should live like that!

The book of James is a book of wisdom from the New Testament. In it, James gives very direct instruction on how to live our Christian lives. You might summarize it by saying "If you really believe it, you'd live it!"

The last letter that we have from the Apostle Paul was written to Timothy, his ‘son in the faith.’ Paul is in a Roman prison and knows he will die soon. What he writes gives us all hope that we, too, can end well.

Power, love and self-discipline -- these are the big three that mark a courageous, Spirit-filled life. In spite of all the things that can ‘in-TIMID-ate’ us these days, God’s Spirit takes us in the opposite direction. No more being timid!

“Controversial speculations” that do not advance God’s work continue to be a danger for the church today. Conspiracy theories, arguments over masks and vaccines and politics, social media battles -- they detract from God’s work to reach a spiritually lost world.

Are you a trustworthy person? Can people count on you?  Has your character been tested and proven? Or do you sell out for self-interest and let people down? Meet a young person who passed the character test.

There is a little Timothy in all of us. We all have strikes against us. But our deficiencies don’t need to limit our influence for Christ. Our deficiencies actually make room for God’s sufficiency.