Feet to your Faith

Every New Year I hear people making proclamations.  Things like: This year is going to be different. . .  I am going to get out of debt. . .I am going to lose weight. . .I am claiming all of my promises in Jesus name!  Now before you get mad, hear me out.  I think all of these proclamations and resolutions are great.  BUT, they are nothing if you don’t put feet to your faith.  Here is what I mean by that.

Each year I get new clients.  I get “hearers” and I  get “doers”. 

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

The “hearers” are the ones who look at the treadmill, weights, fruits and veggies and believe with everything in them that if they exercise and eat right they will lose weight. . .but the “hearers” never put feet to the belief and thus they never obtain results.  You can stand and look at a treadmill all day long and “proclaim” that it can help you lose weight, but unless you GET ON, your faith in the treadmill is useless!

Carry that to your spiritual walk.

James 2:17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Example:  You can claim all day long that God is going to get you out of debt this year, but if YOU don’t make active steps in that claim, your faith is dead and useless.  Applied faith would be repentance for overspending and then finding an accountability partner to hold your feet to the fire when it comes to spending money.  God then grants you the grace and self-control to achieve your goal.

Now my “doer” clients know that just hiring a trainer is not a magic potion for weight loss.  They know that if they don’t give forth the efforts in the gym and control their appetite they won’t see results.  The “doers” come in and apply the principles I give them for their health.  THEN they get results.

Watching the trainer workout and listening to the trainer lecture might make you a “guru” of information about how to get fit, but it doesn’t get you fit. 

In the spiritual world this would be the difference between a “student” and a disciple.  A student gains information from his teacher/Rabbi.  He gains head knowledge. A disciple’s goal is to DO what his Rabbi does. 

Matthew 4: 19 Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." 20 They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

Christian discipleship is ACTION.  Jesus disciples didn’t just listen to Him talk and give mental assent to His teachings.  They got up, left everything, and put feet to their faith.

No matter what your resolution, or proclamation is for the New Year, be sure you act as a disciple and not just a student.  Ask God how you can put feet to what your mouth is proclaiming.