Living Boldly for Christ: Daily Reflections on Faith, Prayer & Spiritual Life by David Hathaway
Based on James chapter 4, we are reminded neither to boast nor worry about the future, but rather to entrust our lives fully into God’s hands.
To those who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this city, spend our money, take a holiday, or carry out our plans” – why do you say that?
James reminds us: you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. We can formulate all the plans we want, but only God truly knows. He asks, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” Just as Scripture elsewhere compares our days to the grass of the field that quickly withers when the sun rises.
"When you ask, you don't receive because you're not asking God, but you don't receive because you ask with the wrong motives." Have you thought about this? There are two reasons why you don't get what you want: one, because you're not asking God; and secondly, because you're asking with the wrong motives – because you want something simply for your own pleasure. We look at things from a spiritual perspective, not just material.
Based on the Book of James, chapter 3, we are urged to speak good, wholesome words which uplift others.
What we sow, we will also reap. This is a quotation from the Lord Himself: that what we sow, we reap. If you sow discord, then you'll suffer the results. But if you sow peace and love and kindness, then you'll receive the reward of that.
In today’s episode, based on the Book of James, chapter 2, David challenges you to live out your faith with purpose – to not just say, "I believe in God," but to understand that your faith has to be life-transforming.
Verse 14: "What does it profit, my brethren, though a man says he has faith, and he doesn't have the responding work? Can faith save him?"
What James is pointing out is that, in God's sight, He is not looking merely at our outward appearance; He is looking at our heart. God judges us by what we do. He says that those of us who are rich in faith are heirs of a kingdom that has been promised. This is a promise – not a fantasy dream of a rich uncle in America, but a factual, evidential promise of the reward we have in the kingdom if we fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture.
Based on the book of James chapter 1 and 2, David says that every good gift comes down from God, the Lord of glory, who shows no partiality. While the sun follows an orderly cycle of rising and setting, its light shifts and produces shadows; we cannot remain in its full brilliance twenty-four hours a day. God is not like that. He does not rise and set, nor does He wax and wane. His presence, character, and faithfulness remain constant 24/7.
Scripture plainly tells us that the one who perseveres under trial is blessed; having stood the test, they will receive the crown of life. While the Bible speaks of various crowns – such as the soul winner’s crown – the crown of life is reserved specifically for those who remain faithful to the very end without yielding to hardship.
For many of us, prayer begins with the model Jesus gave when His disciples asked, "Lord, teach us to pray." Yet the issue is that too many believers never move beyond that initial step of the Lord’s Prayer. It is profoundly important – God miraculously revealed its depth to me while I was in prison – but we are called to go further. We must actively combine our prayers with faith and true belief.
“Have faith in God.” Jesus said, “You say this and shall not doubt in your heart, but shall believe that those things which you have said shall happen, shall have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatsoever things you desire, when you pray, believe that you will receive them, and you will have them.”
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