I have been doing a Bible Study on the book of James through the YouVersion Bible App with a friend. If you’ve never used this Bible app, or have but haven’t done a study with a friend through it, I recommend it. It’s a great Bible app, and going through a study with someone else is a great way to learn and grow.

Anyway, enough of the free advertisement for them (they didn’t pay me to say that haha).

The passage from James was chapter 4, verses 1-6. In this passage, James is challenging his readers to not act and look like the world. Verse 4 of that passage says

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

In the devotion, the writer shared a story about when they were in college, and an atheist professor had written a question on the board in one of their philosophy classes. The question was, “If you knew there was a God, would you change your life today?” That question really hit me hard when I read it. A lot!

If I knew there was a God, would I change my life?

That question kept running through my mind. After I finished the devotion, I opened my journal and continued to write out my thoughts about that question. It felt like I was being challenged to check myself, to make sure I’m not living like the world around me. Have I in fact changed my life to line up with the truth that God is real and I want to live for him.

As I was writing in my journal, I wrote down this question… Do I live my life and base my decisions and actions around God?

Do I?

Have I?

Does my life look like the world around me? Seeking after stuff, getting angry when I don’t get what I want or when something doesn’t go my way. Acting and reacting and making decisions the way the world does.

Or, do I live different than the world? Does my life align with God’s Word? Is what I seek after, how I respond, and the decisions I make show that my life is different because of God?

Going back to the question that hit me…I know there is a God. So the part of the question that is left for me to ask is, have I changed my life as a result?

Do I? Have I?

Let’s be real. It’s easy to get in line with the world around us. Because it is around us…it’s what we see, what we are surrounded by, what we experience. So it’s easy to begin to act and live like what we are surrounded by.

But as believers, we must work to make sure that we are aligning our lives with God and his Word. Which means we must continually take stock of our lives and ask these kinds of questions. And, we must be careful what we allow to surround us. Yes, we live in the world, but we can still surround ourselves with God’s Word and people who are seeking to do the same. When that is what we surround ourselves with, it helps us to live a life that is changed and different.

Do you? Have you?

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” – James 4:6

At the end of this passage where James is challenging his readers to not act and look like the world, he reminds us that God gives grace to the humble. If you continue reading the next few verses in James, it gives us a picture of seeking after God and being humble before him (James 4:7-10).

In a world full of selfishness and pride, we are called to be humble. In a world seeking their own gain, we are called to seek the Lord. In a world that gets angry and violent when things don’t go their way, we are called to live in peace and patience. In a world of hate, we are called to love. In a world that is desperate for hope, we are to live out that hope.

In a world that needs to know there is a God, we are called to live like there is a God.

Do we? Have we?

As followers of Christ, may we align our lives with God and his Word. May we live differently than the world we are surrounded by. May we base our decisions and actions on the truth of God. And may the world see something different in us than what they see in everything else.

May God truly be glorified in our decisions, actions, reactions, and lives!