Passivity

I was recently flying from the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport and because it involved a very early start in the morning, I decided to drive to the airport myself and leave my car in the car park. On arrival I duly parked my car and looked for a bus to take me to the terminal, but I found instead a notice directing me to board a ‘pod’, which looked like a small space age cabin running along a track. I duly boarded the pod and waited for something to happen. Nothing did! So I waited a bit longer and then I noticed a screen outside the door with an instruction to touch it to activate the pod. This I did, and again I waited, and waited, but nothing happened. Finally as I was sitting wondering what to do, three more passengers arrived. They sat down, one of them pressed a button by the door (which I had failed to notice) and the pod roared into action. I felt a little sheepish!

It made me think about how often in our Christian lives we can be sitting there waiting for something to happen, when God may be wanting us to take some action ourselves. Of course there is much written in the Bible about the need to wait on the Lord, and we need to learn to do that, but often we can be too passive, expecting that God will do everything for us without any action from ourselves. We are told to seek, knock, and come. This is all active, not passive.

In the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15, the son needed to come to his senses, arise and set out to go to his father, and it was then that the father came running to meet him. The father did not come and seek him out while he was sitting in despair amongst the pig swill; the son needed to get up and turn back himself.

In order for the invalid at the Pool of Bethesda (John 5) to receive healing from Jesus, he had to obey Jesus’ command to get up, pick up his mat and walk. As he did this he was immediately healed. When we have been hurt or are facing situations that seem hopeless to us, we can often become passive, waiting for help to arrive, when God could be telling us to get up and walk. At the same time there may be steps that we need to take that are our responsibility – such as making a choice to forgive others, confession and repentance of sin. Is there anything that you need to do today to enable you to move into all that Jesus has for you?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I am sorry for times when I have been passive, waiting for something to happen, when You were wanting me to get up and walk into my healing and freedom. Please show me if there is anything specific that You want me to do now. Amen.