In order for us to receive the great gifts of the Lord, we too must cast out our own unbelief and become real believers. Pray to the Lord for help and work on believing Jesus. When he says a thing, just accept it. If it is too big for you, then ask the Lord for help in believing. This is how the whole kingdom of God works.
This is just one of the benefits that belong to the person who reveres the Lord. We are supposed to come into a place within our faith that we no longer fear those who strive against us. Our hope and our trust are in Him, our Lord and provider. In Him is victory. In Him is peace, the kind of peace that makes us secure regardless of the circumstances. We can come into a place wherein our thoughts of Him and our faith in Him are bigger than any other person or thing we encounter. We only have to keep our eyes glued on Him and His word and speak His words instead of the doubt of this world.
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.
The New Living Translation of this verse is even more direct. It reads, “If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.”
That is straight forward but it sounds a bit harsh. James is trying to get across to us just how important the words of our mouth are. You cannot have an effectual religion and an unsaved mouth. That is just how it is. In this chapter James is writing about being an effectual doer of the word. He then says you cannot accomplish this if you cannot tame your tongue.
There are many scriptures in the Bible about the words we speak. It seems to me that in this passage, James effectively refers to the body of verses about the tongue saying to us that you have heard all of these verses but still you let your mouth wander off in any direction it chooses. He tells us that we will never attain to effectual faith if we don’t once and for all get a bridle on our tongues. He wants to wake us up to the power of the tongue.
We must first grasp the importance of this and then learn how we are to use words in our everyday lives. If we do not, James says our religion is worthless. I do not want my faith to be of no use and I am sure you do not either. Let us examine the words we speak. Let us begin to guard the words of our mouth jealously. Let us draw together with a determined purpose; to focus our attention on the words of our mouths and help each other to have victory in this most important area.
The Lord is near to all who call upon Him.
At some point in time we have to decide to simply believe the words of the Bible. We have to move on from wanting everything to be proved to us and arrive at belief. We are said to be “believers” but just what is it that we believe? I want you today to choose to believe that God is with you. When your life is troubled or even very busy, you may not feel like God is close to you but we have learned not to go by feelings. We go by faith. This is where belief in God and his Word needs to be preeminent. Belief in the Word needs to rise up so that it can strengthen you. Know that he is near you as you call upon Him. Do not doubt that he is right there for you. He is working on your behalf even when you cannot see his work or feel his presence. Don’t doubt it for a second. You are precious to Him and nothing you do or say escapes His notice. The Lord is near you today. What have you to say to Him?