From God comes…
From God comes a call to action. Christians cannot afford to sit on the sidelines and become stagnant. Followers of Christ are constantly moving toward loving others and growing spiritually.
The Bible is full of exhortations illustrated through action verbs. Words like do, grow, run, walk, seek, serve, pray, worship, encourage, produce, share, and many more should all be read with a spiritual perspective. As we study the scriptures, we can be cognizant of such words and meditate on how they apply in our lives.
1 John 3:18 (NIV) says, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” In other words, we can’t just talk the talk. We must walk the walk. (Colossians 1:10) We must run the race. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) We must be doers of the word, not hearers only. (James 1:22) When Christ says, “Well done thy good and faithful servant,” it indicates the servant was doing something. (Matthew 25:23)
We were actually created to do good works. (Ephesians 2:10) These good works do not earn us salvation. (Ephesians 2:8) We do them because we are saved. We do them because God loves us and we want to show our love to others. These good works glorify God. (Matthew 5:16)
Of course, Christians cannot afford to just fill their lives with busy-work, thinking it will please God. As Peter neared the end of his ministry, he left the churches with an exhortation to be steadfast and to “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…” (2 Peter 3:17-18) If we neglect the spiritual for the physical, we miss the mark.
Even the action of being still is a time to reflect. We can’t afford to get so caught up in what we are doing that we lose sight of God’s greatness. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know I am God.” The Hebrew word here for still is “raphe” which means to be weak, let go, or release. It actually means to surrender our will to God’s.
From God comes a call to action. Jesus tells us in Matthew 24:46, “Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.” Therefore, we should always be doing something to show our love for others as we grow in the grace and knowledge of God.
““Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God…”
~James 1:17 (NLT)
