THE UPPER ROOM 27 MARCH 2024 DEVOTIONAL, WEDNESDAY MESSAGE
TOPIC: A Servant of God
TODAY’S READING
James 2:14-26
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14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from works, and I by my works will show you faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. 20 Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is worthless?[a] 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and by works faith was brought to completion. 23 Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,”[b] and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers[c] and sent them out by another road? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.
KEY VERSE: We are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them. – Ephesians 2:10 (NRSVUE)
TODAY’S MESSAGE
I spent many years as a volunteer for a local food program. Each day, we delivered hot meals to folks who were unable to leave home to get their own food. We got to know the people we delivered to quite well, and we always arranged our schedule so that we could spend a few minutes visiting with each person.
One day, a woman to whom I was delivering food told me, “You are truly a servant of God.” I was stunned. I had considered myself a volunteer and nothing more. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I was doing what the Lord asked his followers to do — spending time serving others.
There are many ways to serve God. We help make our world a better place when we live God’s words and do God’s work. Not only do we transform the lives of others but we transform our own lives as well. People often strive to serve and imitate good leaders, and in the Lord we have the best leader of all. We should always try to serve the Lord well.
TODAY’S PRAYER
Dear God, thank you for equipping us and using us to build up others. Guide us to imitate you in all that we do. Amen.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
When I serve Jesus, no act of kindness is too small.
PRAYER FOCUS
Volunteers in my community
The Upper Room is a daily devotional magazine published in more than 30 languages and 100 countries around the world. The daily meditations are written by readers of the magazine and others interested in sharing their faith experiences through writing—both laity and clergy, published authors and new writers. The meditations are stories of real people working to live faithfully with the Bible as their touchstone. Every day, readers of The Upper Room around the world read the same story in many different languages and pray the same prayer together.
