You Can't Just Sit There!
If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.
Several years ago, I heard the story of Larry Walters, a 33-year-old man who decided he wanted to see his neighborhood from a new perspective. He went down to the local army surplus store one morning and bought forty-five used weather balloons. That afternoon he strapped himself into a lawn chair, to which several of his friends tied the now helium-filled balloons. He took along some drinks, a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, and a BB gun, figuring he could shoot the balloons one at a time when he was ready to land.
Walters, who assumed the balloons would lift him about 100 feet in the air, was caught off guard when the chair soared more than 11,000 feet into the sky—smack into the middle of the air traffic pattern at Los Angeles International Airport. Too frightened to shoot any of the balloons, he stayed airborne for more than two hours, forcing the airport to shut down its runways for much of the afternoon, causing long delays in flights from across the country.
Soon after he was safely grounded and cited by the police, reporters asked him three questions: “Were you scared?” He answered “Yes.” “Would you do it again?” “No,” he replied. “Why did you do it?” “Because,” he said, “you can't just sit there.”
What drove a man to try the unthinkable? Walters realized that he couldn’t just sit around doing nothing; he had to do something, even if it was ludicrous.
How often do we as Christians “just sit there” when there is work to be done? Christ has called us to follow Him, not stay behind and relax. There is much work to be done before He comes back to take us to Heaven!
Psalm 94:16 says, “Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?” God is asking for someone to stand up for Him against those who are doing wrong. He asks for Christians to stand up for what is right, and follow Him even when others are following the devil.
Time and time again in the Bible, God asks for Christians to follow Him. Ezekiel 22:30 says, “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.” The prophet Ezekiel was searching for a man to stand up for what was right, to follow God. But sadly, he found no one.
God is calling out to Christians today. He is searching for men and women to stand up for Him and to follow His path no matter what others say. Yes, people may mock or ridicule, but they did that to Christ as well!
Are you standing in the gap? Are you actively following Christ? Or are you just sitting there? There are enough people following the devil and his wicked ways. Commit to God that no matter what comes your way, you are determined to stand in the gap and follow Him today.
Source: Daily in the Word, October 24, 2008