Part of Newton’s first law of motion states that an object at rest will stay at rest unless it’s acted on by an outside force. Sounds like a teenager sleeping on a school morning… nothing is going to get that child up and out the door unless an outside force (most likely a parent) acts upon it. 

I wonder whether God feels the same about His people?

I fear that too often, pursuing comfort or seeking to avoid embarrassment, I can be like the teenager or motionless object. Safe in my stillness, my bubble, safe with my friends and family, safe in the security of my own making, I neglect to go as God’s calls. When I look around the church, sadly I see many falling prey to this same predicament. Settled and stuck to our pews, we have resisted the prompting of the Spirit to get up and go.

I love that in Galatians 5, we’re called to “walk by the Spirit,” to be “led by the Spirit” and to “keep in step with the Spirit.” (v16,18,25) All these phrases have action and movement. Keeping in tune with the Spirit is never stationary work. God is alive and active and wants to draw us into joining Him as He leads.

In Stephen’s speech to the Sanhedrin (Acts 7), he challenges them that they, like others before, “always resist the Holy Spirit” (7:51) as a result of their “stiff-necked” ways. I pray that this is not you or me. Let’s ask Jesus this week to reveal what He’s doing, where He’s going and then to choose to get up and get moving rather than waiting for God to have to exert an outside force that compels us to forward momentum. Afterall, we were chosen and appointed to “go and bear fruit” (John 15:16, emphasis mine). 

No more teenage lie-ins for us. Let’s get up and go!