ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
GOD IS HOLY God is set apart from His creation.
Isaiah 6:2-3
Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 They were calling out to each other,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!”
Revelation 4:8 Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty— the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.”
PRAISE THE HOLY GOD
Praise God because He is completely holy. He is unique. Praise Him because He is set apart from His creation. Creation reflects Him because it is his handiwork, but it does not contain him.
CONFESSION: Confess your sins to God and receive his continued mercy.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
THANKSGIVING: Giving thanks to God for his specific blessings in our lives.
“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100
SUPPLICATION: Bringing our requests to God.
- Bring your personal prayer requests to God.
- Pray for children in foster care in Kansas. Pray for families at River caring for foster children. Ask God to protect these children and to provide homes for them.
SCRIPTURE READING:
James 2:14-26 – Christian Standard Bible
Faith and Works
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder.
20 Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? 21 Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete, 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
James uses Father Abraham to make his point, and he uses a foreign prostitute to make the same point. This spectrum of two extremes means that every one of us can plot a point somewhere between the extremes and put ourselves there. There is no one who is unable to live a life of faith expressed in faithfulness. This is not about self-confidence, it is about a confidence in the power of God. Paul wrote in Philippians 1, “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” He expected and hoped that he would have sufficient (enough) courage to live a life that pleases God. In fact, he expected that God would give him the power he needed to please God whether he lived or whether he died. James is not advocating for more self-confidence resulting in more faithful works. He is advocating for more God-confidence resulting in faithful works. God’s power operational in us through the gospel is going to bear fruit. We must expect that to be the case. When the fruit is not evident, we need to ask why and correct the problem. It will never be that God has changed or moved, it will always be that we have disconnected from his power. The good news is that we can always repent and reconnect.