In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:17
Yesterday we began a new series about how to move forward in life, and today I’d like to identify one of the two extremes Christians can get into that prevent us from reaching our goals. We’ll call this first extreme the spiritual ditch—when we become so spiritually minded that we forget to use wisdom.
A woman I know once experienced an example of this at a Christian women’s conference. One afternoon she took part in a scheduled trip to the mall, but when it was time to return for the evening service, the bus didn’t show up.
As time passed, she decided to grab a cab, but not before passing a group of ladies standing in a circle in the middle of the mall. They were praying that God would intervene to get them back to the conference on time.
There’s nothing wrong with prayer, but sometimes we forget that God is more likely to give us ideas we can implement to get us out of trouble—like the idea to take a cab—than he is to miraculously deliver us while we do nothing. We have to remember not to be so spiritual that we forget to be practical.
To stay out of this ditch, we need to keep growing in practical wisdom at the same time as we keep growing in our knowledge of the spirit realm. This balance is called Spirit Contemporary, and it’s the key to walking in the blessings of God in every area of life.
If you have a problem you’ve been praying about, is it possible that implementing some sort of practical knowledge could help?