Last Sunday I took another survey. I was trying to gauge whether disciples were actively working on personal growth areas in their relationship with Christ. The response to the first question was obviously unanimous: do you struggle in any specific area to reflect the character of Jesus? — YES!!!!
The next question was intended to identify whether people were actively taking steps to grow in that area. By active I meant working hard at it, seeking help for it, taking specific steps to make changes with God’s help. If people understood the question this way, then the results are encouraging.
- 37 out of 50 said YES
- 13 out of 50 said NO (or sometimes)
To be honest, this surprised me. But the question is how they understood the question. Did they mean YES to working hard at it, seeking help for it, taking specific steps to make changes with God’s help. I hope so.
The last question was somewhat unrelated – yet connected to being like Jesus. I asked whether they had done anything in response to the refugee crisis…Again, I meant specific. Prayer is a place to start, but I wanted to see if people had donated, or volunteered somehow.
- 11 out of 50 said YES (two of these specified ‘prayer’)
- 39 out of 50 said NO
The point of these questions is to make people think. The results are certainly not scientific. Based on conversations afterwards, I think it worked. People were challenged to consider their specific actions, not just their good intentions.
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:14-17)
God has graciously given us everything we need for godly living: forgiveness for our failures, Jesus’ presence for our example and encouragement, Spirit-power for our efforts, assurance that God will complete His good work in us. We do not need to EARN this, but it does require EFFORT to live out of it. As Dallas Willard says, grace is opposed to earning, not to effort.
Jesus invites us to join Him by faith, to trust Him for help, to walk with Him in love. He is working on making us to be ‘little-Jesuses’ where we live, work, play. He sees those areas where we are struggling, and is prepared to help us change. Our part is to work hard at it, seek help for it, take specific steps to make changes with God’s help.
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. (2 Peter 1:3-9)