Acceptable Religion

The last verse of James:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

You want to know how to be accepted in the sight of the Father?  Live a pure, faultless life that includes looking after those in distress and keep yourself from the junk in the world.

You want to know how you can do that?  Ask God to grant you wisdom, which includes looking into his word and accepting what it says about you, about Him, and about his love.

The life that God accepts is not one that’s flashy, running here and there to fulfill our every whim, or a life full of lofty words we sing about him.  He wants our heart, and he wants us to offer it to him willingly.  He wants us to believe him.  And he wants us to respond to him by responding to others.

I’m not good at doing any of that by myself.  In fact, I can’t do any of it on a regular basis.  I fail miserably.

But I can read the word.  I can read the same book over 10 times until I believe what I read. I can hear his voice, because I belong to him.  And I can fall back into his arms when I’m weak – and he will be my strength.