Imagine this: You’re in a marathon. You’re at the 25th mile marker. You’ve trained for months. You’ve done 5k’s, 10k’s, and 20-mile-runs all in preparation for this race. You’ve changed how you eat, you’ve changed how much you sleep. You’ve run on cold days, rainy days, through pain and blisters. You hit “the wall” at mile 20 but are able to push through; all for this moment where you are now a mile from the finish line.

And you stop. Why? No real reason, just didn’t feel like going.

Could we acknowledge something: that doesn’t happen! People may stop at mile 10, or 16, or 21, but no one just stops at mile 25 unless if they simply can’t go on.

Yet we do that same thing with our beliefs all the time.

We do it when we assume the purpose of our beliefs is simply to believe. That’s not the case! It is good for us to believe, but we must also recognize that our beliefs have implications.

It doesn’t make any difference if I believe that exercise is good for me, important, relieves stress, and makes me healthier, if I don’t ever exercise.

It is the same way with our faith. Our faith has implications for how we live. In James chapter 2, he writes: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faiths save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

Your faith should a affect how you live, how you respond, how you love, how you hope. While our faith is never based upon our actions, it does change how we live.

• What would someone who didn’t know you determine about your current beliefs about God based upon how you live?
• If you fully trusted God, how would it a affect how you live?
• Living out our beliefs is sometimes hard. What could you do that would help you support a lifestyle of faith?