Who’s waiting on who?

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By the way so many people complain about God being either silent or slow, you would think the Creator must be indifferent, deaf, or dead.

Fortunately, He’s none of those things.

This frustration felt toward God comes more from a false concept of Christianity than it does from any act of neglect on God’s part. Believers are constantly fed a line of teaching that infers being a follower of Christ is all about Him doing everything, and us waiting on Him to act.

Yet, a simple survey of scripture paints a very different picture.

The Bible teaches that following Christ requires a vigorous interaction with the Lord on our part. Throughout scripture, we see significant aspects of our faith predicated not only on action taken by God, but by ourselves as well.

Living the Christian life is not for the sedentary!

We see this when action is tied to a very big word in scripture: “if.”

Check out these Bible passages and see how, from the beginning of scripture, they call us to be active with God:

    • “You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master,” Genesis 4:7.
    • “If you listen to these regulations and faithfully obey them, the Lord your God will keep his covenant of unfailing love with you, as he promised with an oath to your ancestors,” Deuteronomy 7:12.
    • “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins,” Matthew 6:14-15.
    • “I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you,” Matthew 18:19.
    • “You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it,” Matthew 21:22.
    • “Jesus said to the people who believed in him, ‘You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings,'” John 8:31.
    • “If you love me, obey my commandments,” John 14:15.
    • “You are my friends if you do what I command,” John 15:14.
    • “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” Romans 10:9.
    • “It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you — unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place,” 1 Corinthians 15:2.

Could it be that God is neither silent, nor slow, but waiting … on you?

Scotty