In Nehemiah 9 while the people are recounting the story of the Israelites disobedience and Gods mercy we come across verse 28.

But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in your sight. Nehemiah 9:28a

Before this the people had to fight and reclaim what was theirs but in verse 28 the fight was over, they were at rest. Whilst this was what they would have wanted we see that rest didn’t help them at all, in fact it moved them further from God.

This theme comes up elsewhere in scripture. It was during a time when the kings were usually at war where David sins by taking Bathsheba. Proverbs 6 warns us about about the danger of slumber.

I’m not trying to talk about Sabbath rest here, that is so vital to us, and I don’t believe that is the focus of these passages.

I think what is being talked about in these examples is what happens when we come “off mission.” There is an old saying that I used to hear when I was younger – “the devil makes work for idle hands.” It was a classic parent quote to any kids who were ‘bored’ but there was truth in it. When we aren’t involved in a mission, when we aren’t intentionally living our lives with a purpose, there are a number of things that can happen to us. I’ve listed some of them below (in no particular order)

• We become ‘me’ focused – when our lives are not focused on the others we were serving previously, our own stuff comes to the fore and we become conditioned to choosing our preference.
• We become feelings led – similarly, when there is nothing else setting the agenda how we decide to spend our time will be determined by how we feel, and it we don’t feel like it……. we just wont do it.
• We detach – because we aren’t on mission we start to forget what it was like to be on mission. When that happens we feel out of the loop, we lose our urgency and desire to see changes happen, so we continue to pull back from others.
• We get dissatistied – when we aren’t doing what we have been created to do we miss it, whether consciously or subconsciously. This leaves us wondering what we should be doing and boredom sets in.
• We lose our dependency on God – it our lives are running on auto pilot, our need for God will diminish. Why would we need to depend on anyone beyond us when what we are doing doesn’t challenge us?

I could keep writing more and more about what happens when we don’t live our lives on mission with Jesus. We were designed on purpose for a purpose and when we live outside of that calling something changes within us. My desire is that each of us would fully understand that calling and walk in the fullness of it!