A few weeks ago I was asked to present the core value devotional at SCC. Well here it is!
Morning church! Man it feels like forever since I've last seen your beautiful faces! Hey, let's get started, today's core value is pretty straight forward but the thing I really like about this value is the dirtiness hidden within it. "Pray as though it depends on God; work as though it depends on us."
Let's take a peek at James 2:14-18
"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds."
What James is saying here is that faith without action is dead. Don't misunderstand, deeds are not the key to Heaven. However, hoping to squeak by on faith alone isn't going to cut it either. What we hear from this passage is that we can't just say "Oh sure, I believe God is all powerful. I believe God can perform mountain moving miracles." We have to be willing to act on that. It's like praying for God to provide a chair then refusing to sit in it. It's more than just saying we believe, we have to act on our faith.
Check out this quote from A. W. Tozer
"The fallow [or the unplanted] field is smug, contented, protected from the shock of the plow and the agitation of the harrow [or being broken up]. Such a field, as it lies year after year, becomes a familiar landmark to the crow and the blue jay. [...] Safe and undisturbed, it sprawls lazily in the sunshine, the picture of sleepy contentment.
"But it is paying a terrible price for its tranquility: never does it see the miracle of growth; never does it feel the motions of mounting life nor see the wonders of bursting seed nor the beauty of ripening grain. Fruit it can never know because it is afraid of the plow and the harrow. In direct opposite to this, the cultivated field has yielded itself to the adventure of living. The protecting fence has opened to admit the plow, and the plow has come as plows always come..."
"Peace has been shattered by the shouting farmer and the rattle of machinery. The field has felt the travail of change; it has been upset, turned over, bruised and broken..."
Then listen to this, "but its rewards come hard upon its labors."(emphasis mine)
Notice how Tozer gives personification to the field, as though the field did all the work even though the field could do nothing to make the farmer decide to work there. That's exactly how we are, there's nothing we can do physically to get Jesus to cultivate our soul and use us in his mission, but there's a lot we can do to prevent Him from doing that, but when He does cultivate us and use us that is when we see the "rewards that come hard upon [our] labors."
The person who operates by faith alone is like the field that has never been cultivated. They become a landmark where passers by know they can stop for a moment and enjoy the scenery. They are somebody who we know we can go to and ask faith questions, maybe they're quick with a quote or can help us understand scriptures. But the person whose faith has completely changed their life is like the field that has been cultivated, they have taken down the protective fences around their souls and allowed the spiritual farmer to plow the land, to sow the seed, to fertilize and water the soil. These are the people we can look to and see how we should act in different scenarios, these are the people we look to to show us how to not only believe in the chair but how to sit in the chair. They show us how to live by our faith and through our faith, when we're going through the cultivation process they can help lead us through. So yes, we should pray as though is depends solely on God, because it does it's His plan being played out, but we should work as though it depends on us, because to say we have faith without putting in the work is to stair at a chair and say, "I prefer to stand."
