I’m reading an excellent book called, Boundaries: When To Say Yes, How to Say No
I love #9: The Law of Activity. Here are a few excerpts that stood out to me in the section on this law:
“Human beings are responders and initiators. Many times we have boundary problems because we lack initiative — the God-given ability to propel ourselves into life. We respond to invitations and push ourselves into life.”
“Consider the contrast in the parable of the talents. The ones who succeeded were active and assertive. They initiated and pushed. The one who lost out was passive and inactive….Passivity never pays off. God will match our effort, but He will never do our work for us. That would be an invasion of our boundaries. He wants us to be assertive and active, seeking and knocking on the door of life.
“We know that God is not mean to people who are afraid; the scripture is full of examples of his compassion. But he will not enable passivity. The ‘wicked and lazy’ servant was passive. He did not try. God’s grace covers failure, but it cannot make up for passivity. We have to do our part.
“The sin God rebukes is not trying and failing, but failing to try. Trying, failing and trying again is called learning… God expresses his opinion toward passivity in Hebrews 10:38-39: ‘But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.’ Passive ‘shrinking back’ is intolerable to God, and when we understand how destructive it is to the soul, we can see why God does not tolerate it.”