“If it is meant to be, it will be.” No, not really. (Ouch!):  The closer our relationship with Jesus becomes, the more we recognize the importance of mentally, emotionally and physically accepting- “Jesus Lives!” And the more we realize how actively involved following our Shepherd requires us to be. That beginning statement is a statement that does not align with anything Jesus did, nor His disciples, nor Abba’s prophets. They were people, actively involved, actively learning, actively waiting, and actively ready to always do something God required of them. Abba desires us to be actively involved, actively embracing His will, and actively learning His ways, which then allows us to uniquely receive a richness not normally known: a new, living depth of His love, specifically geared towards us, individually. By His Spirit, we now breathe and are comforted; by His Son, we now actively embrace Him, live under His reign and allow Him to carry us through this tumultuous world. Action: active, living and thriving! However, “If it is meant to be, it will be,” seems to require less effort from us, and breeds more of a “sit back” mentality that wrongly waits for something to come to us, or pass us by. And in doing so, in not vigilantly waiting for Jesus’ direction, we unknowingly disconnect ourselves from what He may be wanting to bring us through, where we can actually see a miracle transpire, or even make that giant step of faith that will allow us to finally, fully and freely, fly to new heights as we intimately know He holds us up, or even more importantly, intimately learn “Yes, we can do all things through Christ, whom strengthens us!” We can also wrongly miss out on a lot of “warrior training exercises” we need to be brought through in order to better hear His voice above the noise within, so that when we are hit by harsh “surprises,” we can receive His reminders of how He really had prepared us for those times, and be comforted by them. There is a richness of Abba’s Glory intimately missed when we do not apply any effort, and even if it is something we are pursuing that does not align with His will for our lives, there is also a depth of teaching we need to receive in learning that and being able to humbly accept it. There is something so vital in being able to richly learn more about His comfort and receiving His confirmation while we actively learn and watch how He actively clears the debris of our will so we can more fully embrace His. Even Jesus’ model prayer reminds us to actively ask for “God’s will to be done.” We chose Jesus and thereby we chose to be actively involved, and praise Jesus, because of Him we have moved from “just believing,” to “actively knowing” and always, actively waiting for His direction!