Tuesday June 14th

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called… 1 Timothy 6:11,12

There are those who preach a passive Christian life. You don’t have to do anything, let go and let God.

This is nonsense and it is absolutely not what Paul taught. Paul taught action: flee, pursue, fight, take hold! I remember well praying and praying again for God to take my addiction away from me. I was mad at God when He did not. The truth was, I was not willing to do anything. I just wanted an instant magical fix for the mess I had made. In Christ, I had been given the freedom to pursue God or myself. I had pursued the desires of my own flesh and had become enslaved. Then, I was not willing to flee evil, pursue God or fight for sobriety.

While we do absolutely need to pray, we also need to be willing to act radically. We daily need to flee the evil our flesh nature desires. We need to continually pursue our relationship with God. We need to fight for and take hold of that life to which we are called. We are not called to a passive, inactive life. We are called to active, radical obedience.