Spiritual Complacency

Where are you with God and His way? Have you become so overconfident with your relationship with Him that you may have entered into apathy?

Are you aware that spiritual complacency is a dangerous spiritual condition that can lead to an outright rejection of Jesus Christ? It leaves a person open to the attacks of satan and his ways.

In the old testament of the bible, it says that people became so complacent with God, they got into making idols. Do you have any idols in your life? It can be anything that comes before God.

One of the signs of spiritual complacency is being lukewarm in your relationship with Jesus. In Revelation 3:14-22 , the letter written to the Church of Laodicea, according to Jesus they were lukewarm. Evidently Jesus cannot stand people that are lukewarm. Another word for lukewarm is complacency. People will find that complacency is not contentment.

Another sign of spiritual complacency is looking upon success, which is far more dangerous than failure. The fruit of complacency is what you consume. In most cases it is what is dictating the direction of your life.

Here are some other indications of complacency.

Do you look at yourself other than what God does? Especially when we think we are doing okay spiritually. Do we compare ourselves with others? The Bible gives us an example in Luke 18: 10-14 of how to compare ourselves to the holiness of Jesus.

Do you live with an attitude of self-sufficiency? Are you trusting your own ability to handle the ways of life? Have you forgotten that God has control of your body, soul, and spirit? Everything good and I mean everything good including you was created by Him. We need to put Proverbs 3:5-6 in our heart and not depend on our understanding.

You have become comfortable with your life. A believer of Jesus should never be comfortable this side of heaven. Have you become so close to groups, systems, lifestyle, politics, etc. that we no longer seek the spiritual things of God. Do not let 1 John 2:15-17 become your lifestyle and lose what the Kingdom of God has for you.

Are you spiritually aware of what salvation in Jesus Christ is all about? Could you be spiritually dull about the understanding about accepting and believing in Jesus Christ as your Savior? Do you desire to live your life with Him? God gave us a book of instructions called the Bible. He gave us a pathway to communicate with Him, it is called prayer. Do you exercise these blessings in order to have victory over the forces of the devil or are trying to carry on without help from the only one who has provided you with victory, Jesus Christ. Read and follow Ephesians 6:12-18.

The real danger of complacency is when we are not paying attention to the real spiritual dangers such as you no longer have intimacy with Jesus as found in Mathew 7:21-23. You are no longer part of His purposes as stated in John 15:8. You are no longer prepared for the coming of Jesus Christ as found in John 5:28-30.

If there ever comes a time when you feel smug or satisfied with yourself regarding your achievements, or feel overconfident, you may be headed into spiritual complacency. I’m sure that most of us have had periods where complacency has entered our lives. If there comes a time when you think you are headed in that direction, get out of it as if your life depends on it.

Find the promises of God. The Bible has around 7000 promises. If you are following Jesus here is 7 promises He has for you.

Life – Matthew 16:24-25 It seems like an incredible contradiction, but we will only find life when we quit pursuing it. When we stop chasing the things we believe will bring us life and instead, pursue the creator of life, we discover life as it was designed to be.

Acceptance – John 6:37 Charles Spurgeon once called this one of his favorite verses. In this passage, we discover Christ’s assurance that he will not send those who come to him away. We see this acceptance peppered throughout his interactions in the Gospels. If we come to him, we will find him waiting with open arms. Christ’s invitation extends to everyone, and he accepts all those who follow him.

Reward – Mark 10:29-31, Following Jesus requires sacrifice. There are times when the immediate benefit of going our own way may appear to outweigh the potential gains of obedience. Jesus wants us to know that our sacrifices aren’t in vain and there’s nothing we can surrender that exceeds what’s attained in following him.

Revelation – John 14:21  When you get down to it, there’s an element of God’s truth that one can only understand from the inside. All the arguments and proofs for God’s existence pale in comparison to actually experiencing a relationship with God through Christ. Jesus promises us that, when we obey him, he will manifest himself to us.

Friendship with God – John 15:14-5 Jesus came to reconcile God to mankind. The surprise there isn’t just that a bridge would be built between God and humanity; it’s that we would enter this relationship as friends. Yet, this is exactly what Jesus promises us. 

Joy – John 15:9-11   We’re instructed to continually exist in God’s love, and he tells us that we can do that by keeping his commands. Our obedience keeps the relationship alive and active, allowing us to remain in his love. Why does he want to securely stay in this relationship? So, our joy will remain full.

Jesus promises us that joy is a byproduct of remaining in God’s love.

Trials – 2 Timothy 3:12 When you get down to it, following Jesus puts you at odds with the world. This persecution can vary in extremes. Some that belong to Jesus will lose friends, family, jobs, opportunities, maybe even their lives. This truth is partially why these other promises exist. It’s as if God is saying, “Following me will be a struggle, but here are the things I will promise those who persevere.”

Jesus says it this way: “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me” (Matthew 5:10-11)

There is a very important question you need to answer, do you claim the promises of Jesus but do not believe with living in oneness with Him?

If there is a way, I can encourage you to examine your relationship with Jesus, I do so now. Every one of us is in a learning stage. If there are areas of your life that needs to change, share your heart with Jesus in prayer or just have a conversation with Him, then listen and keep listening. He hears you and will come to you.

Remember that Jesus loves you more than you can understand. We are entering a time when we celebrate the Gospel. Jesus suffered, died, buried, and rose from the dead and is alive so that we may live.

Jesus loves you and so do I.