You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did
Today’s verse is a snippet from the passage with which we started the week where James is referring to Abraham. God promised Abraham that he would give him many children and make him into a great nation if he would only trust God and follow where he led. Abraham took God at His word and left his family in search of the land and the family God had promised. Abraham would wait 25 years until he was well into old age, to even begin to see the fruition of God’s promise through the birth of a single son. I am sure Abraham thought that surely this was the it…what God had promised! Until God asked the unthinkable. God asked Abraham to give up that long anticipated son as a sacrifice. But Abraham’s faith was firmly rooted in God and his actions confirmed it as he prepared to give up his son in obedience to God.
Abraham’s faith was lived out by his actions. It wasn’t just talk when things were going well. It was action in the face of the greatest sacrifice God could ever ask Abraham to make. Abraham knew that God alone could give and take away and he trusted that if God promised… God would still provide, even if it cost him everything he held dear. Abraham acted in faith.
God asks the same of us. To make our faith complete by trusting Him and acting in that faith – stepping out boldly, loving the unlovely, speaking with kindness, and giving generously… acting and trusting all along that God will provide.
