Lukewarm Complacency

Part 1

Sometimes God’s children fall into spiritual ruts. They seem to be going through the motions of being a child of God, but without passion or a genuine feeling of the closeness that they have had in the past, to the Lord. I admit, that I have found myself in that situation myself. It is in those times that we lose our excitement about the things of God and even damage our relationship with Him. While we do not reject Him altogether, we find ourselves in a very uncomfortable situation, for a while any ways. It is that in-between, not wholly with the world, but not totally in love with God either place. This place the scripture refers to as spiritual complacency, being lukewarm and straddling the spiritual fence. This may not be your  problem right now, but sometime in your Christian life, you will be, if you are not very careful to guard yourself by being filled daily and walking in the Holy Spirit. All of us have the tendency to slip into a lukewarm spiritual state. Instead of being the thermostat, we become a thermometer. When everything is going well and we don’t need anything, it’s very tempting to let our guards down assuming that it will always be grand. In Revelations 3:14-22, Jesus wrote a letter to the church in Laodicea, a church located in Turkey. He told them that they were spiritually complacent: "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Jesus is telling us to not be content in that condition. Get up, move out! He stand ready and waiting to help us out of that retched state, but we must desire Him more than anything else. You see it’s always “things’ trip us up and get us sidetracked. Don’t become so lukewarm that you like that common place you may be in. Be ready to pick up and move on to a higher spiritual calling. (continued)

Part 2

Last week I encouraged you not to visit the land of the lukewarm. The place where you become spiritually content. That place where you feel neither hot nor cold for the Lord, just lukewarm. To be lukewarm means, to be indifferent and undecided. You haven’t resolved to do something. You are not passionately invested in a cause. Nothing you do seems to motivate you to exert yourself. When we are lukewarm spiritually, the progress of God’s work is not as important to us as much as it may have been in the past. Outwardly, we may seem to be doing quite well. We may seem to be happy and satisfied, and are committed to our routine of Christian life. However, we dislike anything that “rocks our boat.” We just like the way things are. We are comfortable and feel like we are in our control. But really, we are just pitiful! If this is where you are sweet friend, you don’t realize your true situation. You have no spiritual strength. You think you are doing well, but in fact you are in tremendous danger of being far away from God. I know this because of my own spiritual failures and past waywardness at times. However, the good news is that God loves us dearly and will always be ready to embrace us when we wake up from our spiritual slumber. In verses 15 and 16 of Revelations chapter 3, Jesus tells the Laodiceans their actions indicate their spiritual complacency. When people are truly moved by something, they take action. If you love your family, you will work hard to support them and meet their needs. If  you have ambition for power, if not careful, you will be ruthless in pursuing it. If a child is trapped in a burning building, a mother will do everything she can to save her child. A true believer, will not be able to stay in a place of complacency very long. The Lord wills it that way. He knows that His children can only rebel for so long and at some point they will return to Him. Why? Because upon salvation, God places His Spirit inside them. He promises that His Holy Spirit will lead them into all truth, guiding them as they walk through life and seals them until the day of redemption. No one can remove that seal, no one! A true believer will sense that complacency in their lives and will be convicted by the Spirit of God to repent and turn back. If that does not happen in a person’s life, they will need to rethink and work out their salvation according to God’s Word. However, to the child of God, Jesus says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.” If we could save ourselves by our good works and deeds, or our great motives or any other means, we would not need a Savior. But since we can’t save ourselves, we must surrender to the One who does save, and when we do, we will have the desire that only He gives to want to serve Him and live for Him. The book of James tells us that Faith without works is dead. No good! Ephesians tells us that, it is by God’s grace that we can be saved, through our faith and nothing from ourselves, for it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. Today sweet friend, take a moment and gage your spiritual walk. How is your relationship with God? Draw neigh to Him and He will draw neigh to you! Jesus is the way to God. No man comes to the Father but by Him.

Loving on you today,

Bren