Complacency

I find it easy to see how it is easy to become complacent. I can think that times are good and forget all that God has shown me in the past, to forget all that I have been through to bring me to this place where I am today. God has promised us so much, but yet we live our lives in the fact that nothing bad will come to us, but the truth is that bad will come our way no matter how we live. Being a Christian doesn't guarantee us a life full of fun and more, it guarantees us a place in heaven, but while we are here on earth we are called to reverence God, to honor God, to serve God.

I look at the world today and especially America and we are becoming less and less effected by what God has said. It is as though His word hold less and less weight, because we have a life of good, but God says that we are to Love Him no matter when it is and when we love Him the most we will be more than willing to keep His commands, there will be no question to follow His teachings. He calls us to lay our lives down for Him, but yet we do not want to surrender our will for His will, we do not want to die to self and live for Him, but that is what He calls us to.

How many times do we think that we don't have to do what He says because something else seems more important, like how "I" feel? If that has come to your mind, than do you really love God the most? Loving means ultimate dedication to and when we are dedicated to something there is nothing that will change our minds from doing all that is necessary.

I am reminded of some verses that apply to just doing enough:

Revelations 3:16 "So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth."

What does lukewarm look like, it is neither completely the world, but not completely a following God's teachings either. Some good questions to ask to see what God sees. You know your own heart and you know the answers, but may you consider it before saying I am not lukewarm.

• Do I only come to God when I have a problem?
• Is my Christianity based on what can God do for me or how can He make my life better? 
• Do I obey the Word of God or do I try to twist Scripture to justify my sin? 
• Do I think I am a Christian because I do good deeds, I tithe or go to church, but live like the world 6 days a week and are holy on Sunday? 
• Do I compromise with the world because it’s the most popular choice? 
• Do I have true repentance because if I do, I will be truly sorry for my sins and want to change. 
• Do I compare myself to others instead of comparing myself to Jesus? 
• Am I more concerned what others think rather than the Lord?

If you are reading this and becoming angry as though I am judging you, take it back to God and ask Him. I am not judging anyone, I am just writing what is on my heart.

What does the Bible say?

Matthew 7:16-17 "You can detect them by the way they act, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit. You need never confuse grapevines with thorn bushes or figs with thistles. Different kinds of fruit trees can quickly be identified by examining their fruit."

Matthew 23:25-28 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."

Isaiah 29:13 "The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.”"

Titus 1:16 "They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good."

Mark 4:15-19 "Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful."

Refusing to listen to God’s Word.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

1 John 3:8-10 "Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother."

Hebrews 10:26 "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left."

In love with the world

1 John 2:15-17 "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."

James 4:4 "You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God."

Reminders

2 Timothy 3:1-5 "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people."

1 Corinthians 5:11 "But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people."

We Must Deny Ourselves (No longer about self)

Matthew 16:24 "Then Jesus said to his disciples,Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

Matthew 10:38 "Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me."

Examine yourself

2 Corinthians 13:5 "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?"