Belief without Practice...

I have been reading a book I was given a long time ago called Next Door and Down The Freeway, edited by Neil Wiseman.

In one of the chapters, written by Bill Sullivan, is a quote by George Gallup. He says "Belief without practice is producing an indifferent population." That is a phrase that should challenge each of us.

Think about this.

When I did financial counseling I would use the phrase "Putting principles into practice for a purpose." If you know the principles you want to live by and you know what your purpose is, that defines your practices. If you choose not to act in a way that is in align with those principles and your purpose, then you are lying to yourself.

When you have 3 variables in a formula, you can only choose what 2 of those are. Once those are chosen, the third variable will automatically be calculated. If you choose the principles (God is love) and the purpose (My purpose is to be like God) then the practice is determined for you (I must be love). If I am not love then I either don't really have that purpose or that principle.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is the hypocritical notion that one can say they believe in God and say their purpose is to be like Him, yet they do not put that into action.

Consider these verses from Jame 2.

So you see, it isn't enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn't show itself by good deeds is no faith at all - it is dead and useless.

...Do you still think it's enough just to believe that there is one God? Well, even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror! Fool! When will you ever learn that faith that does not result in good deeds is useless?

...So you see, we are made right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.

...Just as the body is dead without a spirit, so also faith is dead without good deeds.