Let’s begin by looking at what Paul said in 2 Cor 12:9 — “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” There are 2 important truths about grace that are hidden in this passage (Or course, there are more; but I want to draw your attention to 2 of them). The first I want you to see is that grace, God’s grace, is His strength. I, also, want you to see the word “weakness”; which implies our dependency to let God, His grace, do the work for us. Look at Paul’s confirmation to this in the following verse — “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Notice that again, “WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN I AM STRONG”! In other words, he is saying, “When I don’t lift a finger to help God, His grace works strong”! 

See, we have been taught over and over that we need to pray, read and study our Bibles, do different kinds of self-disciplines, for us to grow and mature in Christ. But this is us trying to help God; placing conditions on His promises that require our effort. However, this mindset comes as no surprise, because we are conditioned to think this way from birth to have the perspective of our achievement. We are taught that we can do anything, or can become anything, as long as we are persistent at it with a lot of hard work. It’s the philosophy of, “If, at first, you don’t succeed, then try, try again. Because quitters never win and winners never quit.” Sounds like good advice, and for functioning in the world, it is the right perspective to have. But, when it comes to our spiritual growth and maturity in Christ, God’s way is counterculture. His way is by grace through faith, see Eph 2:8-9.

In this lesson, I’m going to show you the art of doing nothing; for this is God’s way of “by grace through faith”. Sure, there are all kinds of instructions and commandments in the New Testament that we have been instructed to carry out. But, what if God's design and plan is that we step out of the way, and let Him do those things for us? Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Not convinced? Look at what we read in Heb 13:20-21 — “[20] Now may the God of peace… through the blood of the everlasting covenant, [21] make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” It appears from the outside that we are doing God’s will, but, inwardly, God is the one that is working; we are just responding to what He’s doing. Look at how Paul puts this in 1 Cor 15:10 — “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Again, from the outside, it appeared that Paul was laboring a lot, but he was just responding to what God, by His grace, was doing in his life. This is what I mean by learning the art of doing nothing. 

See, grace is like an involuntary action; meaning, it works totally independent of our effort. Grace is the effortless favor of God. I want to show you the lifestyle of those who have learned the art of doing nothing. Much can be said about each one of these points, but I’ll only briefly explain them.

1) It’s a life of growing in knowledge. Look at what Peter said in 2 Pet 3:18 — “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” These are the last recorded words we have from Peter; these words are kind of his legacy. Look at the importance of what he instructs, “grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus”. Growing in grace is growing in God’s indwelling sufficiency to lead, guide and provide for us, and growing in the knowledge of Jesus (not the knowledge of Scripture) is letting Him teach us from within (Although it can help, no Bible required). Look at how Paul says this in Col 2:7 (TPT) — “In the same way you received Jesus our Lord and Messiah by faith, continue your journey of faith, (in your knowledge) progressing further into your union with him! Your spiritual roots go deeply into his life as you are continually infused with strength, encouraged in every way. For you are established in the faith you have absorbed and enriched by your devotion to him!” Growing in grace-knowledge and Jesus-knowledge is fuel for the involuntary work of grace in our lives, because correct knowledge encourages us to remain weak and to let Him work.

2) It’s a life of resting. We let grace do the work for us as we rest in the finished work of Christ. We just saw a teaching I did on “Living by grace”, where I showed you from the New Testament, 5 things that we are instructed by grace to do. These things were: the instruction of receiving; the instruction of putting on (wearing) our new self; the instruction of forgiveness; the instruction of peace; the instruction of true conviction. I cannot emphasize enough that these actions are the result of grace working in our lives as we rest in Christ. In other words, these things happen in our lives from learning the art of doing nothing — we do nothing to help the Spirit bring them to pass in our lives. I like the way Jesus introduced this grace-lifestyle of rest — “[28] Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” If you look carefully at v.28, Jesus “GIVES us rest”; this happened when we came to Christ, see also Heb 4:3. Then in v.29, Jesus says that we “will FIND” that rest as we learn from Him. The fact of having rest holds true for everyone in Christ; Jesus obtained it (this is called His finished work), but finding His rest is a continual cycle of glory as we keep learning from Him, see Eph 4:20-21.

3) It’s a life of standing. If you take a stand for something, you are expressing what your belief and attitude towards something is. This is what Paul is telling us throughout his writings. Let’s look at a couple of them. Look at Gal 5:1 — “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” Our call is to STAND FAST in Christ’s liberty. Simply put, liberty points to the finished work of Christ; we are to have a firm belief and attitude in His finished work. Then we look at Eph 6:10-14 — “[10] Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. [11] Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil… [13] Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  [14] Stand therefore…” Count it… 4 times he used “standing” in those verses. See, standing is not fighting; it’s continuing to believe in the finished work of Christ; it’s contending for the faith that was once delivered to us, see Jude 1:3. When I think of contending for the faith (not “our” faith, but “the” faith, the finished work of Christ), I think of the old childhood game we used to play, “King of the mountain”; where one child, atop the mound, would contend his position against the other kids who try to cast him down. Jesus has certainly made us king of the mountain (we’re seated with Him), and the enemy, through various sources, tries his dirt-level best to discourage us and bring us down from our lofty position (Of course, this is in our belief and attitude). But as long as we’re growing in knowledge, we’ll be resting in Christ, and this reflects in our standing! You see what I did there?

4) It’s a life of true freedom. Listen to what Jesus says in John 8:35-36 — “[34] Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. [35] And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. [36] Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” Before we start trying to make the words of v.34, “commit sin is a slave of sin”, fit our lives as believers in Christ, think again. Because Paul told us twice in Rom 6:17 and 20, that we are not a slave of sin any longer. Jesus is speaking about who we were before, compared to the true freedom we now have in Him — FREE INDEED; not just free, but really free! Our freedom in Christ is being free from sin, its power and for it to master us. If the Christian addict — I know we don’t like to talk about this in Christian circles, but there are many Christians hurting, struggling and condemned — if they would realize their true freedom and identity in Christ, they would walk free from that bondage of the flesh. 

I like how Paul puts this in Gal 5:1 — “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” Every believer can stand fast in his liberty in Christ, because God’s grace is always a present help! “Standing fast” results from the choices we make — are we going to choose grace, or rely on our efforts. We have been designed by God to be able to choose His grace, and therefore, stand fast in our liberty. This choice doesn’t come from us making a price of self-sacrifice or discipline; it comes from the price Jesus already made for us to have this freedom. The worst Christian addict is FREE INDEED, as Jesus said in John 8:36; he just doesn’t realize what has been done to him and hasn’t discovered his real desires (He still thinks that fleshly desires are his own). Paul tells us in Rom 6:18 what are real desires are — “And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” This “YOU” that’s been set free from sin and became a slave of righteousness is the real you inside — our inward man. This means that our real, core desires are righteous, not fleshly (those are from the world, see 1 John 2:16). See, our true freedom is found from the art of doing nothing; it comes as we rest in the finished work of Christ.

5) It’s a life of enjoyment. This is the last point we will look at in this study. Paul said in 1 Cor 10:31 — “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” He said, “WHATEVER YOU DO”. Some people have thought that they needed to cut off their fun activities, or make sure that they don’t have too much fun, because that would, somehow, nullify them giving God the glory in what they did. Don’t get me wrong. Of course, there may be things that we do that are just wrong, but we those things will be put aside as we grow and develop in Christ; it’s not the other way around. Others have tried to “work” this verse of giving glory to God in what they do, by thinking that if they prayed enough, fasted enough, blah, blah, blah, then they would arrive at a place in their spiritual maturity, where they would give glory to God in everything. But, this too, is absolute HOGWASH (Believe me, I used to have that kind of religious attitude, and believe me, that’s no way to live.) Giving glory to God in whatever we do is the natural occurrence of learning the art of doing nothing and living by His grace. It happens as we learn the freedom we have in Christ. I have personally found that I receive more revelation from God when I am doing the things I love to do and enjoy. Giving glory to God in whatever we do is the result of knowing that God is there with you in everything you do, sharing it with you. 

Much more can be stated about this point, because many, sincere Christians, who love God with everything they are, are stuck in a rut of not really having fun in life. This is because people have drilled it into their minds that Christians aren’t able to have fun like the world has fun. But the good news of the gospel is that Christians should be the happiest people on this planet; envied by those who aren’t in Christ.