In the spring of 2020 the whole world held its breath. A virus went after the lungs. People could not breathe. Suddenly a single number on a monitor told the whole story. Breath, or no breath.
“then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (Genesis 2:7, ESV)
On Sunday we opened James 2:14-26 together. Faith Breathes. This week we walk back through it, one thought a day. A sermon checks the number once. The week is where you keep watching it.
James ends the passage with a picture. As the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead. That word spirit is the same word as breath. So picture a body fully formed. Every part in place. Lungs, ribs, heart, all of it ready. And no breath in it.
That is what James means by dead faith. Not wrong faith. Not missing parts. Right answers, fully formed, and not breathing.
Here is the gentle part. You did not give yourself your first breath. Go back to the garden. God formed the man from dust, leaned down close, and breathed life into him. The man did not earn the air. He received it. Then he breathed back.
Your faith began the same way. You did not generate its life. God breathed it into you. So the works we will talk about this week are not you earning air. They are you breathing back the life he first breathed in.
The question this morning is not, can you build your own breath. The question is, has the breath he gave you started to move.
This matters before anything else this week. If you hear that faith without works is dead and start scrambling to prove you are alive, you have missed the garden. Works are not the price of breath. They are the proof that breath is moving. Start grateful, not anxious.
Today: Before you ask whether your faith is strong, sit with one fact. The life in it was given, not earned. Thank God for the breath. Then ask him to let it move this week.