Undefiled Religion?

If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, andto keep oneself unstained by the world.  James 1:26,27(NASB)

This has been on my heart for some time, and amazingly while looking for one or the other in the Word, I found them together! Isn’t God good?  I have been working on my tongue for many years and have been asking the Lord for HIS help in this area.  I am making progress, and I am aware of the importance of bridling the tongue.  It has the power to build up or tear down, and the words just don’t go back in a mouth as easy as they come out. 😉  Sometimes one persons humor becomes someones stumbling block.  Oh Lord help us to get some control over our tongues!  I think of Jesus beaten, and nailed to a cross and not one mean word came from HIS mouth.  HE surely didn’t deserve anything that HE recieved.  So it really holds no water to decide “they had it coming to them”.  My mind also goes to the other angle-what must non-believers think when someone who has openly stated their faith in God and then the mouth opens and anything BUT God comes out!  Makes me feel sick!  Princess, do you think we could make an conscientious effort to be aware of the things we are saying, and how it may hurt someone else, or make them walk away from God?  I am going to really put out the effort to step up Godly speech.

As thanksgiving approaches, my heart is pulled to those less fortunate.  I think of the single moms who really want to have thanksgiving but have no money to get the extra things, I think of the widows who are going to miss their husbands, and the orphans who have no idea what a family is or how awesome to be with family for Thanksgiving.  I often wonder why God puts that so heavy on my heart!  But it is clearly in HIS Word. The NIV says ‘look after the widows and orphans’…we so often say “I am just wanting to know God’s will in these things” and honestly it is right there.  Wouldn’t it be awesome if each professing Christian would find just one person to help with Thanksgiving, and just stretch the hand of Jesus every where? 

I find it interesting that the Lord found it appropiate to end that verse with “Keeping ones self from being polluted by the world (NIV), or stained by the world(NASB).  It appears to me that the less we are part of the world the more we are like HIM.  In the sense that our speech will reflect HIM and not the world.  Our hearts will want to help some one else, just to show our Jesus to someone else.

Do you love the Word?  I am so amazed over and over how everything we will think about or wonder..HE has already mapped out for us.  God is so good, and HE never changes.  I think the most awesome thing about God today that moves my heart is-HIS motives are pure, and HE really is showing us the way to go.  In the words of Rich Mullens…”why do I fight so hard for things I really don’t want, than to take what YOU give me freely”? 

Father God, My King, My strong tower, so often we find ourselves struggling, and sometimes it is at the hand of someone else, and sometimes it is at our own hand.  You are so good to lift us up and put us back on our feet.  Then you guide us again in the way that is Holy, but we run off to what sparkles.  Oh Lord be what sparkles in our hearts and sight, don’t let us fall to deception, tame our tongues.  Give us the hearts we need to help others, and to not feel so blessed that we turn from the less fortunate. But more than these-give us hearts that desire you so greatly that the world would have nothing for us.  YOU are and there is no other.  You are the only One worthy of our praise. Abba, have we thanked you today for how very good you are to us?  Thank you.

Advertisement