{"id":5830,"date":"2014-11-14T02:40:58","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T02:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=5830"},"modified":"2014-11-19T01:46:34","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T01:46:34","slug":"james-219-demons-also-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=5830","title":{"rendered":"James 2:19\u2014Demons also believe"},"content":{"rendered":"

You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.<\/em> James 2:19<\/p>\n

You believe that God is one. You do well\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

James commended his brothers for believing in one God; by this they proved they were neither atheists nor followers of the false gods to which much of society was devoted at that time. According to the writer of Hebrews who wrote \u201che who comes to God must believe that He is<\/em>\u201d (see Hebrews 11:6), the early believers mastered the first baby step of faith\u2014they believed in the one true God.<\/p>\n

However, neither the writer of Hebrews nor James taught that the mere acknowledgement of God\u2019s existence equaled saving faith. Hebrews 11:6 goes on to say that the one who comes to God must not only believe that He exists, but must also believe that \u201cHe is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him<\/em>\u201d (NKJV). Simply believing that there is a God on one hand and diligently seeking Him on the other are two different things. You can believe in Him without any passion or awe at all; however, when you seek Him diligently, you are moved with spiritual hunger and an earnest desire to know Him. Believing in Him is intellectual acknowledgement\u2014a good thing; but diligently seeking Him involves not only your mind, but your heart and soul as well\u2014the basis of intimacy in any relationship.<\/p>\n

\u2026the demons also believe, and shudder.<\/em><\/p>\n

Demons believe in God; they not only believe, but they resentfully recognize the authority of His Son, as well. They loathe God; they despise the fact that His Word and the name of Jesus spoken in faith by one of His children has the power to thwart their plans. Yes, they know all too well that God exists and that He is a very real Presence here on the earth.<\/p>\n

Therefore, what distinguishes your belief in God from the type of belief that resides in demons? James’ very blunt answer is this: your works. You aren\u2019t saved by your works; you are saved by faith in Jesus. But saving faith is demonstrated through corresponding actions that bring glory to God and salvation and help to others.<\/p>\n

May your faith shine so vividly through your life that others \u201cwill glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all, while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you<\/em>\u201d (see 2 Corinthians 9:13-14).<\/p>\n

Blessings,<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. James 2:19 You believe that God is one. You do well\u2026 James commended his brothers for believing in one God; by this they proved they were neither atheists nor followers of the false gods to which much of society was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5832,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5830\/revisions\/5832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}