Belief and Action

"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?"
-James 2:14
     One of the questions I often ask myself is how people can believe in something but not take any action based on that belief. I ask this question because I see it in so often in my life. I claim to believe many things, which you can read on this very blog, but often do not act on those beliefs. Why is this the case? Shouldn't what I believe change what I do?
     The other day I was browsing Facebook (something I should probably do less of) when I stumbled across a photograph from a website. I almost scrolled right past it until I saw that it was actually my friend (who I'll leave unnamed) who was in the picture. I opened the link, and realized that my friend was arrested and put into jail because he stood with others to protest the death penalty. At first I was surprised at what I had just seen, but as I thought more about it, I realized that my friend was always the kind of person to act on his beliefs. I was inspired to write this post because of what my friend did.
     There are many things that we believe and yet still do not act upon. Take saving energy for example. Many people, including myself, believe that we should use less energy. When you look at people's lives, how often do they actually take steps to reduce energy usage? Perhaps we will buy energy saving light bulbs or appliances, but how often will we change our lifestyle? Saving energy is just one example of how we can have a gap between what we believe and what we do.
     So why is this the case? My first explanation was that true belief leads to action, so we must have never believed in the first place. While this answer might seem logical, the more I thought about it, the less I am convinced it is true. Take the example from before. When people say that they believe that we should use less energy, I don't doubt that they believe it. There must be another explanation of this problem.
     I came to the conclusion that it is in fact possible to believe in something and still not act on it. It almost sounds contradictory, but I think we all experience the gap between belief and action in our lives. What is the real reason we fail to act on what we believe in? Effort and consequences. Think about it. Why don't people do more to save energy? It's because saving energy requires effort that we often aren't willing to put in. It's also because saving energy has the consequence of changing our comfortable lifestyle.
     Another interesting thing I realized is that effort and consequences are related. The measure of effort we are willing to put in is based on the perceived consequences of the action. Although the word "consequence" is often used in a negative context, it actually can refer to both good and bad consequences. "Consequence" has essentially the same meaning as the word "result". With this in mind, we can see that the effort we are willing to put in is based on the negative and positive consequences. We don't take more steps to save energy because we don't think the effort required is worth the consequence of taking us out of our comfort and saving only a small amount of energy.
     The book of James has a stern warning for Christians, as listed in the verse above. Faith without deeds is dead. In the words of this post, belief without action is useless. What good is it to believe in saving energy but never do it? Of course, everyone realizes this principle, but how do we actually do what we believe in? Somehow, we have to change our perception of the consequences of our actions. I truly believe in Jesus Christ. I truly want to surrender my entire life to Him. However, I am hesitant to take action because I don't think the effort required is worth the consequence of losing out on my comfort. I also don't see the full extent of the positive consequences of giving my life to Him.
     I'm sure many of you reading this have the same struggles as myself. I want to encourage you first by saying that just because you aren't radically taking action doesn't mean you don't believe in God. However, I also want to encourage you to reevaluate your views on the effort and consequences of knowing God. Does your perception of the effort and consequences of living for God affect how you act every day?
     Adam and Eve decided to sin against God, ignoring His warnings of the consequences. This sinful nature has been passed onto us, and so have the consequences of sin. The good news is that Jesus came down to this earth in order to save us. The effort we would need to put in order to pay for our sins is impossible for us to achieve. Jesus put in all the effort needed by dying on the cross in order to save us from the consequences of sin. Now, the only effort we need is to give our lives to Him. The consequence of giving our hearts to Him is that we will experience eternal life, even here on earth. The negative consequence of having to live a changed life is actually a positive consequence. Are we willing to put our beliefs into action?
-Smart