Take Action

19 Jan

“Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it.”  ~ Jules Renard

The blind man at the side of the road, the woman with the hemorrhage, the leper walking down the road, the paralytic lying on a mat: all of these had something in common.  They did not simply sit in silence as Jesus walked by.  They all raised their voices — sometimes getting in His face — and begged Him for help.

“Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it.”  We desire to be healed by God.  We desire to become more holy.  We desire to have an understanding heart.  We desire a whole host of things.  You want to know something?  God desires us to be healed.  God desires us to become more holy.  God desires us to have understanding hearts.  But God is not going to force those things upon us, no matter how good they may be and may be for us.  Instead, God waits for us to ask.

That might sound a little infantile to us.  That might sound a bit simplistic.  However, since God has given us free will, He will never impose Himself upon us.  We must be the ones to ask.  If we ask, He will be there to respond and respond in abundance.

So, what stops us from asking for help?  What prevents us from saying that we are in need?  I would suggest human pride.  Pride gets in our way so many times in life.  We don’t like admitting that we cannot do something on our own.  We do not like to ask for help.  In our pride, we sometimes refuse to ask for the aid that we need.  In doing so, we remain without because, once again, God will not force Himself on us.

Imagine what would happen if the blind man, the leper, the paralytic, or the hemorrhagic woman stayed silent and did not call for help.  They would have remained on the side of the road as Jesus walked by and been left in the same condition as they were before He arrived.  It was the courage to tamp down their pride that garnered them a response from the Lord.  What a response it was!

Make an inventory of what you need in order to improve your spiritual life and then take action.

FAITH ACTION:  If you truly want to become more holy, don’t wait for it to happen to you.  Instead, pursue holiness today.