To Do or Not to Do

Go. Wait. Do. Don’t. Which is it? Or is it both?

We have had a similar conversation before, but this seeming juxtaposition appears regularly enough in scripture to warrant our repeated attention.

“Go and make disciples of all nations.” It is perhaps the most operative phrase in the final commissioning from Jesus to the disciples before leaving Earth. It is one steeped in action and clearly mobilizing in directive. The disciples—and you and me by extension—are to “go.” We are to act. We are to move out and spread the Gospel.

But then there is the litany of scriptural commands (that is not overstating it…there are a slew of them) to “wait” on or “be still” before the Lord. Here are just two of them:

“Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (Ps. 27:14).

“I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning” (Ps. 130:5-6).

The repeated invoking of watchmen waiting for morning is particularly instructive because it is as though the Psalmist is saying, “You have to wait even longer than you can imagine!”

So which is it? Are you to go? Or are you to wait? Are you to act? Or are you to be still?

You know the answer, and yet it is critical for us to continually remind each other: It is both!

My friend, despite a relentless onslaught of stimuli that says otherwise, this life is not about you. What a tremendous blessing that is! What a liberating reality to walk in an understanding that your purpose in life has nothing to do with your performance, and everything to do with bringing glory to the name of your heavenly Father!

When you think about these seemingly juxtaposed commands through this lens, it all comes into focus. Your path is not so much set on a destination as it is a person. Your tasks are less about the “doing”—or the not doing—as they are about the yielding. God’s purpose in you is not primarily aimed at the output, but rather the infilling. 

God asks you to “do” in order that you would be aligned with His glory.

God asks you to “wait” in order that you would be aligned with His glory.

God seeks your relationship and your obedience, and He does it that He might be glorified through you.

He doesn’t need your striving or your achieving or your perfection. But He does demand and desire your heart and your obedience.

He may ask you to “go.”

He may ask you to “wait.”

Either way, He is gently reminding you that He has called you by name, you belong to Him, and it is all for His glory.

Go. Wait. Do. Don’t. The answer is yes to whatever He asks, because your path is wherever He leads.

The following article originally appeared in Thann’s “The Equipped” Weekly Newsletter. For more information on Thann’s weekly email, click here.