In the beginning, before there was broadband, there was dial-up, and it was very bad.

If back in 1999 you wanted to watch the trailer for Star Wars Episode 1, The Phantom Menace,

and many people did, you couldn't just hit play on your computer, watch it and then get on

with your life like it was no biggie.

Your state-of-the-art 56k dial-up modem with its top speeds of, well, much less than 56k,

meant that you had to wait and wait and there was nothing you could do to help it along.

I literally went to bed for eight hours in the hope that it might be waiting for me in the morning. This very

passive and unsatisfactory state of affairs is my way of raising the topic of quietism, which, as a way

of thinking, is more popular today than you might expect. Quietism says there's nothing you can do

to move your sanctification along. God does the work in you,

and so you should just calmly wait and be passive in the process. In recent years, there have been

some high-profile examples of this, reacting against what they see as legalism or moralism,

the call to do more, try harder in the Christian life, some teachers have swung so far the other way that they've effectively taught

people there's no need for a Christian to do anything at all. In a nutshell, stop thinking about

what you ought to do and reflect only on what Jesus has already

done on your behalf. Quietism has its roots in a 17th century Roman Catholic movement. It's most

associated with a Spanish priest called Miguel de Molinos, a French mystic called Madame Guillaume

and a French archbishop and writer called François Fenelon.

They were associated with the idea that the sanctification of the Christian is exclusively the work of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, as far as your personal godliness is concerned,

there is nothing for you to do except get out of the way and let God do all the work.

Let go of your own will and any illusion that you can affect your own sanctification in any way

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