Don’t Be Complacent
By Glenda Ward
McDowell County
“Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” Revelation 3: 3
Christians are to be attentive, to stay alert and focused on things of God, the One who is perfect in all His fullness. In Revelation 3 verse one the church at Sardis had a good reputation in the community, but they had lost the power of God – He was no longer being glorified. Just as this congregation lost its connection with God, Christians today sometimes lose connection with God and become complacent exchanging a personal relationship with God for a superficial form of Christianity, but not having an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ, a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof or turning away. Becoming complacent is feeling so satisfied with one’s own abilities or situation that the attitude is, you don’t need God. You are content with where you are in life. This complacent attitude ignores the reality of God’s guidelines of having eternal life. We can’t afford to be complacent about our eternal security.
Christ Himself bestows the Holy Spirit on His followers. A displaced Spirit and misplaced confidence can lead to our being complacent in our Spiritual Journey. We are to stay alert and focused on things of God and the return of Jesus Christ. Don’t become overly content, that being one with the world. Don’t become marked by self-satisfaction. Don’t become satisfied with your own abilities. Without Christ, we can do nothing. If we stay focused on God, we have got to include the things of God in our daily lives! A complacent attitude ignores the reality of the time, becoming satisfied with current worldly situations and unconcerned with changing their current state of living, to the point of being proud and pleased with themselves.
Easily one distraction after another hinders staying focused on our individual worship time with our God, our Heavenly Father. We need someone whispering in our ear to stay “Focused on God”. We are not to become complacent in our daily walk with God. We are to make sure to preserve our own faithfulness. In Revelation 3:3 people who have become complacent with self in worldly matters are urged to go back to what they first heard and believed, to get back to the basics of our faith. It is important to grow in our knowledge of the Lord our God and to deepen our understanding through careful study. But no matter how much we learn; we must never abandon the basic truths – God’s Truth. No new truth we learn through Scripture will ever contradict these Bible teachings.
Don’t become complacent in your wealth and worldly comfort. Don’t let your self-satisfaction cause you to die Spiritually and stop growing in your Spiritual faith. Don’t lack compassionate service to others or unity of love. Are you watchful and alert? If God has given you a place of responsibility to teach, lead, or serve, use that position to encourage those around you to be Spiritually awake and morally prepared to meet Jesus Christ at His return. Be the whisper that others hear to stay focused on God. Christ Himself bestows the Holy Spirit on His followers. We are to be “clothed in white raiment” which means we are to be set apart for God, signifying purity, righteousness, and sanctification in Him (Psalm 51:7; Isaiah 1:18; Revelation 7:14; 19:14). Don’t give the appearance of being alive, but being actually dead to Christs’ teachings. God can look below the surface of one’s heart and mind, He knows if your works are ineffective. Don’t be a Christian in name only while your works remain incomplete for the Kingdom of God. Our work will not be complete until Jesus Christ returns.
Jesus said in John 15:1-11, “Abide in me.” He repeated that in two other ways in John 15:5-8 while also providing a stark warning and a vast promise: “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abides not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”
Staying focused on God requires abiding in Him. If you create the discipline to spend the first minutes of your day reading the Word of God and talking to Him about the day ahead, you will have a greater focus on Him throughout the day. If you don’t know where to start, try reading John 15:1-11 each morning for a week. Listen to what God has to say.
Becoming smug in satisfaction with oneself or one’s achievement causes them to become overly content with themselves which in return causes them to feel they do not need to do anything about their Spiritual situation, They become too complacent to make changes even though their situation may be uncertain or dangerous and often without awareness. We can’t afford to become complacent about God in our lives and our Spiritual well-being. We simply can’t become complacent about our future. (Reference Revelation 1:3)
NOTEWORTHY
As long as the presence of doubt is detected, neither faith nor knowledge can ever be complacent.
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Glenda Ward is a member of Grand View Baptist Church in McDowell County. She is the mother of five grown children. Glenda is a Christian writer/author of “Something to Think About” – weekly Christian Articles. She writes Church Programs & Bulletins, VBS Material, Christmas and Easter Programs; all material based on the KJV of the Bible. Also testing the field in tributes, individual memorial writings, etc. You can read more good Christian news from Glenda HERE.
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