"For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."
James 2:26
I can be standing outside my house with the key in my hand and still not be able to get in the door. When I place that key inside the lock, turn the handle and then push open the door I will have access into the house.
There is a song I heard someone sing that says "Prayer is the key to heaven, but faith unlocks the door." Now, think about this, if prayer is the key and I never unlock that door I cannot get in. If I place that key in and don't turn it, I still will not get in that door. There are works that are involved to getting your prayers answered.
Please do not misunderstand what I am saying. Works do not get the answers to your prayers. James said that "the body without the spirit is dead." So is faith without works. Works is the body and faith is the spirit. Take anything you do for God, and remove faith from it and it will be nothing but dead works! "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:14) The Blood of Christ brings life into those dead works, to where it is no longer you that live, but Christ living in you! Before I met Jesus, I did not have faith. I was not alive! I had nothing! Now I have faith, I have life, I have everything I need!
The question then I ask you as a reader, "Have you gotten in the door yet?" Are you standing on the porch, so close and yet so far away from real life? Right now, let Christ Jesus instill in you that life and faith so that when you pray, you can open the door and enter into His very presence.
