one step: water break

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13

The One Step Daily Devotional is intended to provide just one step each day for your journey with God. Every journey requires water breaks. Here is a water break for you.

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What is the Christian community supposed to look like? All who have spent any amount of time in a community of Christians have experienced or observed some interaction that does not meet expectation. The expectation for Christians to be like Christ encompasses many features, but the all-encompassing feature of the Christian community ought to be love.

It is in the category of love that many find disappointment. We come with expectations of what that love should look like. Perhaps you came to belong to a Christian community and expected that love to look like words of encouragement. Maybe you came to a Christian community expecting someone to serve you in some way, take the time to get to know you, give you a hug or shake your hand, or something similar. Maybe you expected to be treated justly, spoken to kindly, respected rightfully, or given grace and understanding.

Perhaps you expected these things and did not receive them, or you did for a time and it stopped.

I’m sorry. I cannot speak for everyone, but I do believe that as a member of the Christian community, I can represent it. Surely, if I cause damage in society as a member of Christian community, many will allow my damaging behavior to color their view of the Christian community as I stand as a representative of it by declaring my membership to it. Similarly, please allow these words I speak now to color your view of the Christian community: I’m sorry.

The Church attempts to follow Christ well, but the Church is not Christ. Therefore, the Church is not perfect and painfully reminds others of this truth. This is not an excuse for poor behavior and lax standards, for Christ is the standard and a perfect one at that. The imperfection and failings of the Church are simply a reality.

If you are a member of the Church, there is a picture of love that we must all aim for. If you are outside of the Church and looking in, or if you have visited or been a part of a church and left, the heart of God for you is this…

In the words of Rodney Whitacre,

Jesus loves just as the Father loves (v. 9), and he commands his disciples to love one another just as he has loved them (v. 12). Thus, the community is characterized by divine love. If this love were just a feeling, such a command would be impossible to fulfill. But the love Jesus refers to is an act based in a certain state of heart. Specifically, it is the laying down of one’s life based on willing the good of the other. By God’s grace we can indeed choose to will the good of the other, and we can choose to act accordingly. This is the love Christians are called to in Christ, for Jesus says we are to love one another just as he has loved us, which he immediately defines in terms of laying down of one’s life for one’s friends (v. 13; cf. 10:14–15, 18; 13:34, 37; 14:31.

Lord, please help us to love well.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to lay down your life for someone by putting their needs above your own. Perhaps today God wants you to love others in the way you wish that they showed love to you. Maybe today God wants you to forgive someone for not representing the love of Jesus well. Perhaps today God wants you to aim for His lofty standard of love. Maybe today God wants you to receive His love in your heart.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a water break… we all get thirsty.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (pp. 521–522). Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.
Burge, G. M. (2000). John (p. 419). Zondervan Publishing House.
Klink, E. W., III. (2016). John (C. E. Arnold, Ed.; pp. 656–657). Zondervan.
Whitacre, R. A. (1999). John (Vol. 4, pp. 378–379). IVP Academic.
Beasley-Murray, G. R. (1999). John (Vol. 36, p. 274). Word, Incorporated.
Mounce, R. H. (2007). John. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Luke–Acts (Revised Edition) (Vol. 10, pp. 577–578). Zondervan.

one step: water break

…choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua 24:15b

The One Step Daily Devotional is intended to provide just one step each day for your journey with God. Every journey requires water breaks. Here is a water break for you.

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There is a way of doing things that our parents and grandparents handed down to us. There is a way of doing things that our surrounding society offers us as well. Some times these ways of doing things collide. Older generations do not understand why younger generations do things and visa verse.

Even within the ways of our parents and the surrounding society, there are differing views on how to do things. There are different cultures and past technologies informing how our parents and grandparents think. There are opposing political parties that define what is good, right, and necessary in different ways. There are pictures of the flourishing life around us, telling us what to chase in life and how. These views oppose each other.

Then there is God.

God asks us to make a choice. God asks us to lay down the ways of our parents and grandparents and the ways of the surrounding cultures. Unless our parents and grandparents and the surrounding culture serve God, we must cast aside those ways that are handed to us. Why?

Because the way that we do things and the things that we call good, right, and necessary inform what we serve. The way we define the flourishing life will determine what we worship.

Who will you serve? How will you live? What will define that?

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to lie down the ways things have always been done for the ways that God says that they should be done. Perhaps today God wants you to set aside the pressure to serve an agenda to serve God.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a water break… we all get thirsty.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

one step: James 5.9

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

James 5:19-20

We live in a society that encourages everyone to think and act as they feel is right, true, and good so long as it doesn’t violate the common good. It breeds grounds where conflict and accountability become uncomfortable at best and unacceptable at worst. Christian community is counter-cultural in many ways, but one way is how believers must call one another to the Truth of God.*

We must fight past the resistance and fear we feel inside to step across to those we love around us and say, “my friend, there is a better way.”

The truth that James presents includes the message that because sin ultimately and inevitably leads to death, helping another believer return to God in some area saves their life.* Following the truth isn’t just about right thoughts or belief, but it involves right living as well.* The beliefs in our hearts and the way that we live must align with truth, or else we will find ourselves staring death in the face.

Ultimately, the death of relationships, the death of peace, and the death of hope that we may experience in this life from sinful living is merely a foretaste of the ultimate death that awaits those captured by sin who have not yet been freed by choosing to follow Jesus.

The Christian community must help one another to stay close to Jesus, thus staying close to truth.*

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to be brave enough to tell someone you love, “there’s a better way.” Perhaps today God wants you to open your heart to receiving those words from someone else. Maybe today God wants you to see living rightly through the perspective of eternity. Perhaps today God would have you live counter-cultural by embracing His Kingdom culture.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Blomberg, C. L., & Kamell, M. J. (2008). James (Vol. 16, pp. 247–249). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. H. (2006). James. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, pp. 272–273). Zondervan.
Stulac, G. M. (1993). James (Jas 5:19–20). IVP Academic.
Moo, D. J. (2021). The Letter of James (D. A. Carson, Ed.; Second Edition, pp. 316–319). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Nystrom, D. P. (1997). James (pp. 318–325). Zondervan Publishing House.
Martin, R. P. (1988). James (Vol. 48, pp. 218–221). Word, Incorporated.

one step: James 5.8

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

James 5:17-18

I’ve often wondered what the key is to having prayers answered the way that I want. Here, in the words of James, we can fish these verses out of the greater context to believe that the key to seeing miraculous things come out of talking to God is to pray really, really hard. This just isn’t the case.

I’ve wanted things really badly, and I am sure that you have too. I have prayed hard (at least, what I thought was very hard), and I did not get the results that I wanted. Elsewhere in James and via the words of Jesus we must understand that our prayers must not come from a place of selfishness, but they must align with the will God and the name of Jesus. So what is James trying to tell us if he is not telling us that praying really hard gives us whatever we want?

In the Greek, the words for “prayed fervently” could actually be interpreted as, “prayed prayers.”* The double emphasis used could imply passionate, intense prayers, or it could imply continuous prayers.* Based upon the intensity of the stakes of Elijah’s prayers (seen in 1 Kings 17:1-7 and 1 Kings 18:41-19:8) and the waiting period that James details, there may have been some of both intense and continuous prayers.

There could be many reasons why James shared the example of Elijah, but certainly the reasons why include the mind-boggling truth that you and I are no different than Elijah. When we read the account of Elijah in God’s Word, we may find ourselves discounting ourselves and our own faith. It boggles my mind to think that Elijah was no different than me: an imperfect person in need of the Savior.

Could it be that Elijah was nervous that the rain wouldn’t stop when he asked, or it wouldn’t come when asked (we see his fear in his story at various times)? Could it be that Elijah wondered if God heard his prayers? Could it be that Elijah had to trust God even if it didn’t turn out how he hoped or he thought was best? Could it be that if Elijah is like you and me there were prayers that Elijah prayed that didn’t turn out how he wanted?

This revelation should encourage us to remember that our prayers matter. Our prayers possess the power to make big changes in our world because our prayers aren’t just spiritual practices done to feel good or so that we completed religious duty. Our prayers are conversations with the God of the universe, and He listens to us. Maybe God says, “no,” “not yet,” or something similar when we pray. Other times, as we see in a normal guy like Elijah, God answers our prayers with, “okay, watch this!”

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to believe that your prayers are effective. Perhaps today the one step God wants you to take is to trust Him even when things don’t go as we think is best. Maybe today God wants you to see Him do something amazing to answer your prayers. Perhaps today God wants you to keep waiting because the miracle is coming.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Blomberg, C. L., & Kamell, M. J. (2008). James (Vol. 16, pp. 245–247). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. H. (2006). James. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, p. 272). Zondervan.
Stulac, G. M. (1993). James (Jas 5:15–18). IVP Academic.
Moo, D. J. (2021). The Letter of James (D. A. Carson, Ed.; Second Edition, pp. 315–316). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Nystrom, D. P. (1997). James (p. 308). Zondervan Publishing House.
Martin, R. P. (1988). James (Vol. 48, pp. 212–213). Word, Incorporated.

one step: James 5.7

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

James 5:16

Have you ever said, “well, all we can do is pray”? This phrase typically comes after all options have been exhausted and/or a realization of helplessness occurs. The problem with this statement is that it reflects the heart of the individual toward prayer: when we have tried everything that works best, we give praying a try. Said another way, when we say “all we can do is pray,” we are admitting that we believe that everything else stands a better chance than prayer of bringing change to our situation.

James (and more importantly God) would disagree.

Following the revelation that James gives us that the prayers of faith of the elders of the Church brings healing, we see that this invitation to pray effectively and productively is opened to all who are righteous.* Since the righteous are those whom Christ has made righteous, the righteous are all those who believe in Jesus and have invited Him into their life as Lord.*

As already established by Jesus and James, not all sickness is a result of sin, but sometimes it is.* Whatever the case in any particular situation, God desires that confession to one another for healing (spiritually, emotionally, and physically) occur on the regular.* In the case of sin-caused illness, physical healing will come.*

James opens the opportunity to pray prayers that change lives (such as healing) to the entire body of Christ, thus demonstrating God’s heart for the body of Christ: to be engaged in community together that shares burdens and prays for one another.*

What a gift! Perhaps today we should change our perspective of prayer from a powerless last resort to the reality of its place in the Kingdom: a life-altering conduit to the power and transformation of healing by Jesus.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to pray for someone to be healed. Perhaps today God would have you confess about something that you did or are doing to someone who loves Jesus. Maybe today God would have you confess to someone you have wronged. Perhaps today God wants you to realign your priorities to His Kingdom priorities. Maybe today God wants you to reengage in Christian community.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Blomberg, C. L., & Kamell, M. J. (2008). James (Vol. 16, p. 245). Zondervan.
Guthrie, G. H. (2006). James. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, pp. 271–272). Zondervan.
Stulac, G. M. (1993). James (Jas 5:15–18). IVP Academic.
Moo, D. J. (2021). The Letter of James (D. A. Carson, Ed.; Second Edition, pp. 312–314). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Nystrom, D. P. (1997). James (p. 307). Zondervan Publishing House.
Martin, R. P. (1988). James (Vol. 48, pp. 210–212). Word, Incorporated.