Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians 1:3
“Most Christians make the mistake of trying to walk in order to be able to sit, but that is a reversal of the true order. Our natural reason says, If we do not walk, how can we ever reach the goal? What can we attain without effort? How can we ever get anywhere if we do not move? …
If at the outset we try to do anything, we get nothing; if we seek to attain something, we miss everything. For Christianity begins not with a big do, but with a big done. Thus, Ephesians opens with the statement that God has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (1:3), and we are invited at the very outset to sit down and enjoy what God has done for us—not to set out to try and attain it for ourselves.
Walking implies effort, whereas God says that we are saved, not by works, but “by grace . . . through faith” (2:8). We constantly speak of being “saved through faith,” but what do we mean by it? We mean this: that we are saved by reposing in the Lord Jesus. We did nothing whatever to save ourselves; we simply laid upon Him the burden of our sin-sick souls. We began our Christian life by depending not upon our own doing, but upon what He had done. Until a man does this, he is no Christian. For to say, “I can do nothing to save myself; but by His grace God has done everything for me in Christ,” is to take the first step in the life of faith.
The Christian life from start to finish is based upon this principle of utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus. There is no limit to the grace God is willing to bestow upon us. He will give us everything, but we can receive none of it except as we rest in Him. “Sitting” is an attitude of rest. Something has been finished, work stops and we sit. It is paradoxical, but true, that we only advance in the Christian life as we learn first of all to sit down.”
Watchman Nee or Ni Tuosheng (1903-1972) in Sit, Walk, Stand (Carol Stream: Tyndale House, 1977).
Special thanks to Daily Meditations reader, Jud Savelle, who gave me this little book which maps the process of Christian maturity. I chose to read it and share quotes from it on my trip to Canada and South Korea.
Today, we learn the paradoxical way to advance in the Christian life is to learn to sit. I found this interesting to learn as it makes complete sense, but I never thought of things in this way.
And the idea of learning to sit in a seat God has provided comes vividly into my view today. I have a seat at World Series game one in Toronto. I will go with lifelong friend Chi-Chung Keung and Curtis Towns from CCCC, the peer accountability group serving churches and ministries in Canada, part of the GTP global fellowship of PAGs.
God supplied it. It’s like a priceless gift and serves as a word picture of all the blessings we have in Christ. We have everything we have ever needed in Him. Notice how this positions us for generosity.
It means we have everything that other people need as well. We need only sit and realize all we have from a posture of complete dependence and obey the command of the Lord to enjoy and share everything. When we realize this, generosity makes sense as not giving what is mine or that I earned, but from all God has lavished on me.
I thank God for my ticket to the game. I thank Him for my seat at the ballpark. But also I praise Him for the privilege of sitting and soaking in the reality of all I have in Christ Jesus.