Have you ever heard the phrase “Let go and let God”? In one sense, that’s a perfectly good phrase, because sometimes we rely on ourselves so much that we fail to find rest in God. But the phrase can become a kind of license for what we call “quietism.” This is a view that says, “If God wants to change me and if God wants me to grow spiritually, it’s His job to do it, and I’m only as strong spiritually as God makes me.” A person who thinks this way rewrites the apostolic admonition: “It is God who works in me, both to will and to work—so I don’t have to work out my salvation with fear and
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