Many Christians know God's promise concerning His good plans for us (Je.29:11). What do we then do with this promise? Sit back and expect God to work out everything for us? The man who responds to God in the right way will begin to seek God with all his heart to get to know what God wants him to do and also for wisdom and strength to carry out God's plans (vv.12,13). If he doesn't respond like this, will God's plans work out automatically for him?
Many believers are afraid to 'do' anything from their side because they are very confused about 'works'. They have heard that we cannot be saved by works but only by faith, and so they try to avoid doing anything at all (Ep.2:8,9). But there are two types of works. One work is which many people do in order to qualify themselves for God's acceptance. The other type of works come because they have come to experience salvation; now they want to obey God in everything and bless the others. So, those who have been saved through faith show their 'good works' that proceed from their new heart. If such works are not coming from their lives, then they have to recognise that they have not actually begun to experience salvation (Ja.2:17). Perhaps the faith they think they have is merely an intellectual acceptance of some facts without leading them to repent from their sins before Jesus who alone can save them from their sins.
But another reason could be that we are just following our lazy, selfish way by which we expect others to take care of us while we wait to enjoy the benefits! It would be nice to have God do everything for us, wouldn't it? Perhaps that is how we understood grace?
A genuine conversion that leads us to be born again will have a deep sorrow over the fact that we have committed so many sins against God who created us. It's then that we are happy to hear the good news that God has prepared forgiveness for us. Then when we receive that forgiveness and also find that God has given us a new heart that hates to sin, we will turn with our whole heart towards stopping sinning and following our Saviour all the way (2Co.5:14,15). Ok, we may fail here and there, because we are new to this kind of life and we have much to learn. But our heart will be set towards doing God's will and glorifying His name (Mt.6:9,10).
Because we are so excited about realising how much God loves us and has done for us, we become eager to tell others about it. The experience of His compassion towards us will also lead us to express the same compassion to others around us in many different ways. That becomes our 'ministry'.
How sad it is to see that for many people, religious practices such as wearing certain types of dress or following certain rituals are the prime features of what they consider as their 'spirituality'! But true conversion is in our heart, where there come a 180 degree turn in our attitude towards sin, and revolutionary changes in our attitude towards God and other people.