Skip to main content

No generalized movement

We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique. (Benjamin Jowett)

What "action" is God asking you to take right now? Chances are you could be struggling a bit with something God is asking, not really wanting to go the direction he has revealed, or just wanting a little more time before you do as he asks. It is not uncommon to have this reaction to God's request when that request seems harder than we imagined, but it doesn't make the request any less important for us to act upon. 

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? ... faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.” (James 2:14, 17-18)

God's actions are always specific. He might ask for one action from you and another from me, but the end result is just about the same. How can that be? God knows the uniqueness of our personalities and he knows which 'form' of action will best suit each of them. Acting upon what God asks is really faith put into action. As scripture reminds us, faith without action is useless. God asks, we step out, he asks again, we take the next step. This is his plan - forward progress, unwavering obedience, and no stagnancy in our lives.

Specific actions - not generalized movement. I know I can be guilty of generalized movement from time to time - attempting to show God I am 'being obedient', but all the while really struggling with whatever it is he is asking me to do. Concrete actions are kind of 'detail-oriented' actions. In other words, you take each step one by one, each building upon the other, until you see the finished product. These steps are 'accurate' - to the point, no matter how difficult they may be to 'follow' in order.

God isn't going to ask more of us than we are capable of handling, but he may ask more of us than we are desirous of giving right at that moment. If he never challenged us with what seemed difficult, we'd always be infants in Christ. Just sayin!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What did obedience cost Mary and Joseph?

As we have looked at the birth of Christ, we have considered the fact he was born of a virgin, with an earthly father so willing to honor God with his life that he married a woman who was already pregnant.  In that day and time, a very taboo thing.  We also saw how the mother of Christ was chosen by God and given the dramatic news that she would carry the Son of God.  Imagine her awe, but also see her tremendous amount of fear as she would have received this announcement, knowing all she knew about the time in which she lived about how a woman out of wedlock showing up pregnant would be treated.  We also explored the lowly birth of Jesus in a stable of sorts, surrounded by animals, visited by shepherds, and then honored by magi from afar.  The announcement of his birth was by angels - start to finish.  Mary heard from an angel (a messenger from God), while Joseph was set at ease by a messenger from God on another occasion - assuring him the thing he was about to do in marrying Mary wa

A brilliant display indeed

Love from the center of who you are ; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply ; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. (Romans 12:9-12) Integrity and Intensity don't seem to fit together all that well, but they are uniquely interwoven traits which actually complement each other. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." God asks for us to have some intensity (fervor) in how we love (from the center of who we are), but he also expects us to have integrity in our love as he asks us to be real in our love (don't fake it). They are indeed integral to each other. At first, we may only think of integrity as honesty - some adherence to a moral code within. I believe there is a little more to integrity than meets the eye. In the most literal sense,

Do me a favor

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (Philippians 2:1-4) Has God's love made ANY difference in your life? What is that difference? Most of us will likely say that our lives were changed for the good, while others will say there was a dramatic change. Some left behind lifestyles marked by all manner of outward sin - like drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, or even thievery. There are many that will admit the things they left behind were just a bit subtler - what we can call inward sin - things like jealousy,