And our journey through it.
OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS
Good morning, Church. I was reading in the Book of James this morning and I came across this one sentence and had to stop. One “word” caught my attention in that paragraph. Let me quote the sentence before we go into it.
James 5:16
“….. The effective, fervent prayers of a righteous man avails much.”
When I read that statement my “mind” went to the word “righteous” and I thought to myself, how can my prayers be effective when “I” don’t believe, within myself, that I am a righteous man. I sin all the time and fall short all the time and I disregard God’s Word plenty of times! STOP! You see how the enemy can come in so quick, even when we are trying to read God’s Word! Messing with our “minds”. OH! What a lier he is!
Here, I believe, is the problem that is keeping a lot of us from becoming the person after God’s own heart like David.(Look at David’s life but God still called him a man after His own heart.) We, within ourselves, don’t feel or think we are worthy of this “righteous” label. It is a sly way that the devil works within our minds to make us skip over what Christ did on the Cross for us. We became righteous when “we” ACCEPTED His Blood covering for our lives. As always let’s go back to the verses before this statement and see what is said before it.
The whole Book of James is about Faith and how it works in our lives---IF “WE” ALLOW It! In fact in verses 19-21 in chapter I of James, it tells us what does “NOT” produce the righteousness of God. Listen:
James 1:19-21
“Know this, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
What we need to do in this case is:
“Therefore lay aside all filthiness and abundance of wickedness, and receive with meekness the IMPLANTED WORD, which is able to save your souls.” And verse 22 tells us exactly how to do this:
Verse 22:
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Faith working through God’s Love produces Righteousness. (Galatians 5:5 “For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by Faith.”
Faith Obeys The Word
Faith can increase only when we are reading “AND” doing God’s Word. Read all of James Church, it is a guideline of how our Faith should work, and as “WE” read His Word “ask” (and you shall receive) what we need to do to help ourselves and our brothers and sisters-saved and unsaved-to live in “righteousness.”
Satan is always “trying” to make us feel so unworthy of that title and make us miss the Blessings God has for each of us, but Christ already made us Righteous when He gave His Life and Blood on the Cross. Let’s not forget the ‘Price He Paid’ for us in taking away our sins—ALL OUR SINS. Our wills have to stand fast in that ALREADY Paid Price, Saints. Let’s also see how much our Faith grows when we “REALLY” put our Trust in God’s Word! We all sin (known or unknown) but we “CAN” ask God to allow the Holy Spirit “IN” us to help us to realize when we get off that path of righteousness so we can ask for forgiveness, then PUSH forward in Christ.
We can do this, Church! How? By:
Trusting and Believing in God’s Love for us
All scriptures are from: New King James Version of Prophecy Study Bible, General Editor-John C. Hagee unless otherwise stated.