Then said the Lord to me, You have seen well, for I am alert and active, watching over My word to perform it.
Jeremiah 1:12 (AMPC)
God describes Himself as alert and active, and since we are created in His image (see Genesis 1:27) and told to imitate Him (see Ephesians 5:1), it is reasonable to assume that we can also be alert and active.
Activity is the exact opposite of passivity. Adam was passive in the Garden of Eden when Eve gave him the forbidden fruit; without any opposition to her suggestion, he ate it. God had given Adam an instruction not to eat fruit from that particular tree, and He had also told him that if he did eat of it, the result of his disobedience would be severe. God also gave Adam authority and the power of choice, but when Adam was tempted to make the wrong choice, he did not use his authority to resist it.
The fallout from Adam’s passivity, which led to his sin, not only hurt him, but it caused a problem for all of mankind that could have been avoided. Adam very simply did not use his free will to choose the will of God in this situation. Although he knew what God’s will was, he allowed his emotion to lead him in following his wife.
Passivity is non-action or non-resistance. The passive person is led by feelings more than by following the leading of the Holy Spirit. Passive people have free will, or the power of choice, but they don’t use it, and the problems their passivity leads to are too great to be calculated accurately. One definition of passivity that I have heard is “receiving suffering without resistance,” and that is exactly what passive, inactive people are doing, even though they may not realize it at the time. They end up suffering in many different ways and they just blame it on a variety of things, none of which are the real problem.
The result of their inactivity shows itself in a life that they do not enjoy, and one that in fact makes them miserable, but rarely do they connect the dots and accept the responsibility for their unpleasant situation. Inactivity is “idleness, or habitual idleness; want of action or exertion; sluggishness.”20
God has prearranged a wonderful life for each of us, and we can make choices according to His will in order to enjoy it. I often say that anyone who merely lives according to the way he feels may as well stamp “destroyed” across his life.
Jesus is our model, and He was far from passive. He actively sought and lived out the will of God and resisted any temptation or pressure to do otherwise. The descriptive words we attribute to God even reveal Him as active—He saves, He redeems, He heals, He provides, He helps.
Jesus took time out to rest and pray, but even this was a willful decision. He knew He needed to do both in order to fully accomplish God’s will. Many people today are sick due to stress, and they make one excuse after another about why they don’t rest, but no matter how many excuses we make for wrong choices, the result is still the same.
Some people are too much like Martha, who was hyperactive and appeared to value work more than she should have. Mary, on the other hand, knew when to lay her work aside and spend time with Jesus (see Luke 10:38–42). We need to live well-balanced lives, and that comes from taking an active role in your spiritual life as well as your natural life.
As we spend time with God in fellowship, prayer, and Bible study, we will learn how to live properly. It helps us grow spiritually, and that is very important. Many Christians haven’t made any spiritual progress since they were saved. They have a long list of bad habits they intend to give up, but they are not actively doing anything that will help them do so. Don’t sit idly by and allow life to happen to you. Choose to live life “on purpose.”
Don’t sit idly by and allow life to happen to you. Choose to live life “on purpose.”
So much attention is paid to the aggressive sins, such as violence and cruelty and greed with all their tragic effects, that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as apathy and laziness, which in the long run can have a more devastating and destructive effect upon society than the others.
Eleanor Roosevelt21
Non-activity can be as devastating as evil activity. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless.”22 In a world where there is so much to be done, how can we live a day without finding something to do that matters?
Why not make a decision that you are going to pursue the best life you can possibly have, and then actively go for it! Just wanting a good life won’t produce one. We have to do what it takes to get what we want. Every effect has a cause behind it! We are encouraged frequently in the Bible to be alert, active, and consciously aware of what is happening around us.
These scriptures make it clear:
And what I say to you I say to everybody: Watch (give strict attention, be cautious, active and alert)!
Mark 13:37 (AMPC)
Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us.
Hebrews 12:1 (AMPC)
Please notice the words in these scriptures that instruct us to be aggressively active in pursuing the kind of life Jesus died for us to have and enjoy. The writers of mark and Hebrews use words like cautious, active, alert, strip off, throw aside, run, endure, be steady, and persistent. Those are action words—words we can use in our lives as we seize each day.
I heard about a little boy who fell out of the bed in his sleep. His father picked him up and put him back in bed. He asked him, “Son, what happened?” The little boy responded, “I fell asleep too close to where I got in.”
Many Christians today have fallen asleep too close to where they got in. They are not in danger of falling out of salvation, but they have made no spiritual progress since they were saved. God expects us to make steady progress. Anything alive is always moving and changing; it is growing. If a pool of water is not moving, if fresh water is not flowing in and flowing out, it becomes stagnate and useless.
God’s Word rebukes “sleepy Christians.” They are told to wake up!
Therefore He says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine (make day dawn) upon you and give you light.
Ephesians 5:14 (AMPC)
We are living in critical times. Danger and deception lurk all around us, but by remaining alert and active we will be safe. In his letter to the believers in Rome, Paul wrote that it was a critical hour and it was high time for them to “wake up” and rouse themselves to reality. He said that final deliverance was nearer than when they first believed (see Romans 13). Paul believed that Jesus was returning soon even in his day, so how much closer is that time now?
Surely, we want to be ready for Christ’s return. We must not be like the five foolish virgins in Matthew 25 who fell asleep and were unprepared when the bridegroom returned.
Jesus told this story to illustrate an important lesson. He said there were ten virgins—five were wise and five were foolish. They all took their lamps (light) and went to wait for the bridegroom. Five were foolish because they had no forethought, but five were wise and they took with them extra oil just in case their journey was longer than expected. Passive, inactive, lazy people never do anything extra. They expend just enough energy to get through the day!
In the end of the story, the five foolish virgins were left behind because they were not prepared. When the bridegroom arrived, they tried to get prepared, but it was too late (see Matthew 25:1–12).
How many people wait until it is too late to do the right thing? They did not take action to do the right thing when they could have, and, although they now regret their choices, they have already lost something they cannot get back.
We can be fully aware of the good life God has provided for us in Jesus, and the good things He wants to do through us. Each day we can awake from our sleep and go for it!
When the apostle John was on the Island of Patmos, where he received from God the messages we now call the Book of Revelation, he was given seven letters for seven different churches, and many of them contained rebuke, correction, and warning as well as encouragement.
Jesus told the Church of Laodicea that they were neither hot nor cold and because of that He would spew them out of His mouth (see Revelation 3:15–16). I am not going to venture an opinion on exactly what that means, but at the very least it means they were distasteful to Him. They were complacent, lukewarm, and neither for Him nor against Him. His harsh words were actually spoken out of His great love for them, because He hoped they would wake up and become active.
To the church in Thyatira, He wrote that He knew their record of works, their love and faith, service and patient endurance, but that He had one thing against them (see Revelation 2:18–29). They tolerated Jezebel, who was actively leading others into sin! In other words, they were inactive against sin in their midst. Was it harsh for God to be unhappy with a church that was behaving so well in so many ways and that had only one problem? No, it was not harsh at all. God expects us always to be progressing, and that requires the confrontation of evil wherever we find it.
We cannot change all the evil people in the world, but we can make sure that we are not comfortably resting in their midst. Does being a successful Christian sound like a full-time job? It is! It is much more than a trip to church on Sunday that lasts forty-five minutes to an hour and a half, depending on what denomination you attend. If you attend a church, I encourage you to be actively involved in some way. If this is not possible at your church, then get involved in something that is increasing the kingdom of God.
In many instances, we have replaced service with sitting through a service. We are like the farmer who has replaced farming with watching programs about farming. Our fences are down, the weeds have choked out our harvest, and the enemy is running amok.
To the church in Sardis, He wrote, “I know your record and what you are doing; you are supposed to be alive, but [in reality] you are dead. Rouse yourselves and keep awake, and strengthen and invigorate what remains and is on the point of dying” (Revelation 3:1–2 AMPC).
He told the church at Ephesus that they had left their first love (Him) (see Revelation 2:4). To Pergamum, He said that some of them were clinging to false teaching and leading others into deception (see Revelation 2:12–14).
It certainly sounds to me like if we don’t keep moving in the right direction, we will drift in the wrong direction. For example, I find for myself that if I don’t study scriptures on the power of words occasionally, I will once again start saying things that are destructive. If I study walking in love, I am more inclined to do it. If I study giving, I become more generous. These are all things I am fully aware of, but if I don’t keep growing in God’s Word, I will go backward. Christianity is about an active relationship with Christ. Church was never meant to be a spectator sport; we can all be active in the journey of life! We each have a home run waiting for us, but we have to keep swinging the bat.
We each have a home run waiting for us, but we have to keep swinging the bat.
Christians love God, and we believe in Jesus, so what is the problem? Why isn’t the body of Christ (all believers) having a more positive impact on the world? There are many reasons why passivity has crept into our society, and one of them is having wrong priorities. We live in such a fast-paced world that few think they have the time to devote to their spiritual lives. I read that most Christians spend more time each day brushing their teeth than they do on spiritual growth! We simply cannot do all the world invites us to do and often demands that we do. It is important that we take inventory of our lives and prune things off that are not bearing good fruit. Jesus actually said that He would prune those who did bear fruit until they were bearing the most excellent fruit.
We have lost our ability to focus on what is truly important; the things that often get our attention are the ones that scream the loudest. In many cases we are addicted to entertainment, and cannot imagine a life without some of it each day. At one time entertainment required us to be actively involved, but now we usually take a passive role and expect to be entertained.
Most people today habitually complain about first one thing and then another, while they do absolutely nothing to make it any better.
A lot of people don’t even bother to vote in elections, yet they constantly complain about the government. We can blame the problems in our society on a lot of things, but in reality our problems are due to people not taking action to do what they should when they should do it. People are too busy doing things that in the end don’t really matter, and it leaves no time for the things that do matter a great deal.
Be honest! If you’re not putting time into your spiritual growth and other things that really matter, are there non-essential things that you could eliminate and make the time available to do so? I am sure the answer is yes. If it is, then do it!
Does all of this sound exhausting?
I read that John Wesley traveled 250,000 miles on horseback, averaging twenty miles a day for forty years; preached 4,000 sermons; produced 400 books; and knew ten languages. At eighty-three, he was annoyed that he could not write more than fifteen hours a day without hurting his eyes, and at eighty-six he was ashamed he could not preach more than twice a day. He complained in his diary that there was an increasing tendency to lie in bed until 5:30 in the morning.23
I thought I was working hard until I read this. I don’t ride a horse; I fly in an airplane. I only know one language, and I cannot write fifteen hours a day without a lot of things hurting. We need more inspirational stories like this. I don’t necessarily think we need to work as hard as John Wesley did, but we can let his example be a reminder to us to accomplish all we can with the one life we have.
We think the easier life we have today is the result of progress, and in some ways it is. But it seems that as we progress, we also regress in maintaining standards and values that were honored and admired for centuries. What has happened to quality craftsmanship? What about integrity? Honor? Duty? Family priorities? These and many other things have been relegated to a back burner in our lives, and the flame is about to go out. We can revive! We often pray for revival in the church, but how can we have revival unless we are revived? True revival comes from within. It is not an event that comes into town for a few weeks and then is gone again.
It is time for each of us to stir ourselves up, resist passivity and lethargy, and actively pursue God’s will. You have a free will, and you use it all the time, so be sure you are using it to make the right decisions, ones that will produce what you say you want out of life.
• Passivity will keep you from enjoying the best life God has for you. In order to walk in God’s plan for your life, it is important to take action steps.
• We learn how to live properly and are empowered to make right choices by active fellowship with God, talking to Him in prayer and Bible study.
• Why not make a decision that you are going to pursue the best life you can possibly have, and then actively go for it?
• In order to keep from drifting in the wrong direction, it is important to keep moving in the right direction.
• Instead of the “urgent,” focus on the “important” things. Actively dedicate your time to the most important things in your life.