James 1: Don't Stop at Emotion, Move into Action

Introduction

The ONE young adults group of Onnuri Church Osaka has just come back from a retreat. For several days they sang, prayed and received the Word with real fervor. Pastor Maki Inoue says it plainly: he was struck by the passion of this generation and by their worship in God's presence, and he wonders whether, with young people like these, the mission in Japan could move forward faster.

Then everyday life took over again. The next day, it was back to work. And at the following Sunday service, the atmosphere was not quite the same. The pastor asks the question frankly: "From Wednesday to Saturday, how did you live each of those days?"

This message opens a new series called "Reaction to Action": do not stop at emotion, but move into action. Starting from James 1:22-25, Maki Inoue shares two things: the difference between the person who looks in the mirror and the person who practices the Word, and then the blessing of faith, hidden in action.

Message Outline

1. After the retreat, back to everyday life

• On the last day of the retreat, everyone sang with fervor and went home with a full heart. The next morning, many were already heading back to work.
• One person in the congregation admits that the week was not easy. The pastor answers: "Me too, it's the same for me." For him, the days resumed as before: dawn services, preaching at the Thursday and Friday dawn services, the message at the Friday evening worship service, leader training on Saturday.
• He received a great deal of grace, and yet once daily life returned, his heart grew heavy. You start to wonder where the emotion and joy of the retreat went, and even whether you can really change.
• Some feel this gap and their own inadequacy. The pastor repeats: "Be at peace." God did give his grace during the retreat, but he did not give it so that we would spend our whole lives in that burning atmosphere, set apart from ordinary life.
• This moment of disconnect, when you feel a little lost between emotion and reality, is exactly the best place to start: to take a step, respond to the Word and act in the middle of real life.

2. The one who looks in the mirror and forgets

• James uses a very concrete image: "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was" (James 1:23-24).
• In the morning, before heading out, almost everyone looks in the mirror. If you notice something on your face or your clothes, nobody walks away and forgets it. You fix your hair, put on makeup, make the correction, and then go out.
• James warns that in the spiritual realm, we do exactly the opposite.

3. Worship, a mirror that reveals God's love and our sin

• The retreat, like the weekly ONE worship service, is the moment when we stand before the mirror of the Word.
• In this mirror, we see God's immense, overwhelming love. At the same time, the more we know that love, the more we discover what is inside us: pride, sin, things we need to repent of.
• Then the heart warms up. We worship with fervor, and sometimes we say through tears: "Lord, renew me, I will obey your word by faith." This reaction is natural when we experience God's presence. It comes from his love and his grace.
• But once we leave the mirror, from Wednesday to Saturday, we fall back into our old way of thinking: the same words, the same anger, the same worry, the same fears. "Because we are sinners."
• The pastor does not deny what was received: "It's not false, it's true." But seeing that nothing has actually changed can lead to discouragement, disappointment, despair. And without worship, prayer or reading the Word in our own way, life becomes hard. We need God's grace every day.

4. Do not put off your response

• The pastor tells the story of the evangelist Dwight L. Moody. On Sunday, October 8, 1871, he preached to thousands of people in a large hall in Chicago. His topic: "What will you do with Jesus Christ?"
• At the end, Moody did not ask for a decision. He said: "Go home, think slowly and deeply about this message this week, and next Sunday, come back here to decide to receive Jesus Christ."
• Just after he stepped down from the platform, sirens sounded across the city: it was the Great Chicago Fire. The fire swallowed the city in a short time, the hall where he had preached burned, and, according to the account, many of those who had listened that evening lost their lives. For them, the following Sunday never came.
• According to the pastor's account, Moody regretted for the rest of his life not calling for a response that evening, and he resolved never again to preach in a way that put off responding to the Word until the next day or the next week.
• "And you?" Maybe you received a word or made a decision at the retreat. But you tell yourself: I'll look at it next week, when my work is completely finished.
• The pastor suggests an immediate response: in the small groups after the service, those who took part in the retreat share what they received with those who could not come. And those who were not there honestly say whether they see change in the others, or not at all.

5. The blessing of faith is hidden in action

• How do we get out of the gap between emotion and reality? James 1:25 answers: "But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does."
• The Bible does not say that only the person who was most moved at the retreat will be blessed. Nor does it say that the person who filled a notebook will be blessed. It says that we receive the blessing by acting in faith.
• This is the key that deeply changes the life of faith. Through a faith that acts, we receive God's grace, and through that grace we can live with strength and as victors in everyday life.

6. A faith that is always in the present, made of small steps

• Faith is not an album you leaf through with nostalgia to relive spiritual experiences of the past. What you went through long ago is not the essential thing.
• "True faith is always in the present." It depends on how you respond, right now, to the Word you received, and on the step you take.
• Even if you feel a gap between the grace of the retreat and your reality, you have no reason to be discouraged or to tell yourself "I can't do it." God does not ask you to become a perfect Christian all at once, scoring 100 out of 100.
• He asks you to love him more, to trust him more, and to take one small 1% action by faith. A small act of obedience that puts his Word into practice just as it is: that is what pleases him.
• True faith does not stop at "I know" or "I feel." It begins with one small act of obedience, one single thing put into practice in daily life. It is there, in the middle of reality, that God's blessing and living work are set in motion.

7. Two simple actions for this week

• God has planted a seed of faith in everyone's heart, through a living and powerful word of promise. "Are you going to live the same everyday life as before, with only a good memory of last week? I don't want that." The pastor wants to keep moving forward with God in the mission he has entrusted to him, even when discouraged, even when tired.
• He invites you to ask God for a living faith, and then to put it into action wherever God sends you: at work, at school, in your family. God will work in the midst of that obedience. The grace received at the retreat was special, but God has also prepared grace for everyday life: "Wait for it."
• First action: write down in one line, in the notes app on your phone, the word that struck you during the service and the decision you made.
• Second action: during the week, share that note with someone close to you, a ONE member, someone from your small group or your family, by LINE or in person. "Here is the word I received, here is what I decided, here is how I want to live."
• Do not keep grace to yourself; let it flow out. That is the first step of action. "One step is enough." The Lord will rejoice in that small step taken with courage, and he will even turn fatigue, pain and fear into joy.

Key Takeaways

• Listening to the Word without practicing it is looking in the mirror and immediately forgetting what you saw (James 1:23-24).
• The gap between the emotion of a spiritual high and the reality of everyday life is not a failure: it is the best place to start acting.
• Do not put off your response to God: Moody regretted for the rest of his life that he sent the decision off to the following week on the night of the Great Chicago Fire.
• The blessing is not promised to the most moved person or the best note-taker, but to the one who puts the Word into practice (James 1:25).
• True faith is in the present: God does not ask for a Christian who scores 100 out of 100, but for one small 1% act of obedience.

Personal Application

1. What word have you received recently, at a service or a retreat, and what did you forget when you left the "mirror"?
2. In which areas do you fall back into your old habits: your words, your anger, your worry, your fears?
3. Is there a response to God that you keep putting off until "my work is finished"?
4. What small 1% action can you take this week, at work, at school or in your family?
5. Who will you share the word and the decision you wrote down with before the end of the week?

Verses Quoted

• James 1:22-25
• James 1:23-24
• James 1:25

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the mirror image in James 1:23-24 mean?

In the morning, nobody looks in the mirror and then walks away without fixing anything. For Maki Inoue, worship and the retreat are that mirror: in it we see God's immense love and, at the same time, our own sin. Listening to the Word without practicing it is leaving the mirror and immediately forgetting what we saw in it.

Why does the emotion of a retreat fade so quickly?

Back in everyday life, we find our old ways of speaking, our anger, our anxiety and our fears, because we are sinners. The pastor invites us not to worry about it: God did not give this grace so that we would live our whole lives in the atmosphere of the retreat. This gap between emotion and reality is exactly the best place to start acting.

What does God ask of someone who feels far from the ideal Christian?

God does not ask you to become a Christian who scores 100 out of 100 all at once. He asks you to love him and trust him more, and to take one small 1% action by faith. According to James 1:25, the person who puts the Word into practice will be blessed in what he does.