Why not?

In yesterday's post I asked the question "Do you long for your inheritance?"

Maybe you're thinking NO, because I have none!

If that's the case, then it certainly affects the way you live, right?

Would you say you view life "half-empty"; more pessimistic, than optimistic; not sure if there is anything you can count on?

Do live without a sense of certainty, skeptical of a future, so I better get it all now?

But what if you had an inheritance, how would you live?

I think I would be "marking off the days" until I got it!

I would live more generously.

I would worry less about stuff and my future.

I would be able to focus on a hope in tough situations.

I would be more secure in my identity.

I would see things differently because I had hope.

I would really love whoever gave me the inheritance!

Is that the way you live?

If not, you can!

…because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,…when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. ¹⁴ The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him. Eph 1:11, 13, 14

What does this have to do with James?

Well, James would be right up in your face asking "why not?" If you claim to have real faith why aren't you living like it?

The author of Hebrews would be a little kinder and state: ¹ Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Hebrews 11:1

Do you live with that certainty, that confidence, that assurance, that kind of faith?

¹⁴ For the LORD will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance. Psalm 94:14