Just a Spectator

Have you noticed that so often in the Bible there is action required? I can’t recall any place in scripture where there is a call to laziness.  I imagine it would go something like this:   “Go therefore and sittith down.  Doeth nothing and thou will reapeth all the benefits of the gifts thou hast been giveneth by me, sayeth the Lord.”  Instead, we are told to do things like: be strong, stand firm, resist, walk, put on…, be kind, love one another….  Life in Christ is an active thing. It is not a spectator sport. 

When I go to my son’s football games I am a definite spectator. I am an enthusiastic spectator, but still, just a spectator.  I jump up and down, yell at the refs and for our team.  I am sad when we lose and ecstatic when we win.  I encourage the players and tell them they have done a good job.  Still, I am just a spectator. I never actually think to myself, “Today is the day I will play the game.  I’m going to suit up, go out there, and give it my all.”  If you are really going to play the game, you can’t just sit on the sidelines.  No matter how enthusiastic you are, you are still just watching the game.

When you consider your life, are you a participant or are you sitting on the side lines watching life go by?  As a follower of Christ we can take off the old uniform for the team that didn’t fit (life outside of Christ) and put on the new one given to us when we became part of the family of God.  And as we put on this new life, our new uniform, we are renewed and we learn to “know our creator and become like Him” (Colossians 3:10).  Becoming like Christ also requires action. It isn’t just that we get the new uniform that says” I play for Team Jesus”.  As we seek Christ through prayer, Bible study, and fellowship with other believers, we become more like Him.

A friend and I were having lunch and she was saying how she just couldn’t tell if she was really saved. Where was the proof? The proof in her life and mine is in the transforming work of God.  Are you becoming more Christ-like? If you belong to Jesus and examine your life you can see him at work through your attitudes and decisions and priorities. Sometimes we see transformation in the corners of our lives we hide from others and sometimes we see it like a beacon: there He is, working, moving, changing and ever active.  Want to know Him more?  Join the team.  Really join it. Stop yelling on the side lines, suit up and give it your all.

Colossians 3:6, 10 “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.  Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your creator and become like him.”

Ephesians 4:23, 24 “Let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God-truly righteous and holy.”