Day 3 Blank Page Challenge - Doing and Not Doing

I thought about starting this post with “To do or not to do, that is the question…” but that brought back awful memories of stage fright in front of my entire seventh grade class. I forgot my well-rehearsed Hamlet monologue in front of the class and started crying.

So I decided on a different title to discuss this particular internal conflict…but I digress.

There have been volumes written about justification by works or, in other words, thinking that you will be accepted by God due to your actions or by abstaining from actions. The Bible teaches this is an incorrect view of God and His justice. Jesus came to the earth, died for each of us, bore our wrong actions (sins) on His body, and rose again from death. His accomplishment in life, on the cross, in death, and in being made alive again makes us right with God reconciling each of us to Him once and for all – if we surrender our lives to Christ.

The Bible also teaches that faith without works is dead. This means that if we believe God and want to follow Jesus, our lives must reflect that belief in everything we do.

However, I still try to earn my way to God sometimes without realizing I’m doing it. I also get so preoccupied with all the doing that needs to be done that I don’t ask God if I’m doing the right things or in the right ways.

The point is that I like to get things done and currently feel conflicted between taking swift action as compared to waiting and seeking what God has to say about my plans and actions.

Since this challenge is all about letting Jesus’ plans for my life take precedence, I feel like I absolutely have to address the plans and subsequent doing of those plans that are not necessarily prayer-led ahead of time.

Jesus said the person who hears His teaching and does not act is like a person who builds his house on the sand. Storms will come and the foundation will wash away along with the house. However, the person who hears and obeys His words by acting on them is like a person who builds His house on a rock. The storms still come, but the house still stands in the aftermath (Matt. 7:24-29).

Later James emphasizes this by saying that a person who listens but does not obey is like someone who looks at himself in the mirror and then forgets what he looks like (James 1:22-25). This analogy has always confused me.

Is that like if I see a piece of spinach in my teeth and I look away from the mirror, I will then forget to dig it out and go merrily on my way? This is kind of absurd and I think that’s James’ point.

Do what Jesus says; don’t just think about what He says to do. Why would you listen to a teacher you agreed with and believed was speaking truth and then disregard everything he says?

Yes, some of the things He says are hard to understand and hard to implement. But if I believe He speaks truth, then instead of not doing what He says, I should probably ask Him the obvious next question: “How do I do that? How do I do what you say when I’m not quite sure how?”

The issue I have is determining when I am the one doing and when Jesus needs to be the one doing through me. When do I surrender to His Spirit in my action and when should I act?

Cutting to the chase, I know the answer: I should never act on my own. Jesus said clearly “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

It is a matter of figuring out how to do that.

So in today’s challenge, I will seek to be a doer through His Spirit – to do nothing on my own accord but to do everything through Him, obeying Him, listening to His leading, and acting on behalf of and through Him.

I think this will be a challenge as I clean out the litter box and pack snacks for the kids’ soccer game but I think God cares about poop and lunchables too. Just kidding. (Not kidding, He totally cares about those things.)

What I really meant was, this will be a challenge to surrender every action, every decision, every movement to His Spirit. I wonder if and how I will behave differently? I’ll let you know afterwards.

The prayer I’ll pray in the morning will be something like:

Dear Heavenly Father, you know every action I plan to take before I take it. You know when it’s surrendered to your will and when it’s not. You know why I rebel or deflect or forget your Word. Reveal the knowledge you have about me to me. Remind me in the moments before I do something whether I have sought you first in that action and guide me to seek you first. Show me how to do that well while even washing dishes and turning on my blinker. Show me how to do that well while working and having conversations with my children. Show me how to surrender all my doings to you and show me when I don’t and how it could have gone better. Let me not do anything at all without doing it through you and for you. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.