COMPLACENCY

Matthew 11:28-29
28) Come unto me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29) Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Matthew 26:45
Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take [your] rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

It feels good to be satisfied and content in life, or is it? It depends on how we are in that satisfaction or contentment. We are to rest in the Lord, and surely that is a good thing. Matthew chapter 11:28,29; and 26:45 all speak of how He will give us rest; we shall find rest for our souls; and sleep and take rest. To rest we must be comfortable, right.

Comfortable is being in a state of comfort, sufficient, adequate. A condition of ease or well being. I also came across this, which I think is interesting. Comfort is derived from Latin and means strong also to strengthen. In the 19th century the meaning ‘at ease’ was developed. These weakened senses are the normal ones and the older meanings are obsolete.

Complaisance is an inclination to comply willingly with the wishes of others. Complacency is satisfaction or contentment and also smug self satisfaction.

When the strong and to strengthen were taken away and at ease came into the picture is where we run into problems.

To be at ease in the Lord or to be strong or strengthened in the Lord. I choose the later.

We have a tendency to become comfortable with the Lord, and in doing so we can also become comfortable in some of our life habits. Things that we know do not line up with the word of Christ, but out of habit we have become complacent in our actions and reactions.

When LJG and I do these columns we will come back later and say did you see that error. Even with spell check and two people proofing, we make mistakes. That is not what we are speaking of. We are addressing the issues of things in our life that we have done so long that we are comfortable and ‘God if He does cross our mind, will understand’.

Wrong, He desires that we grow in Him, and in doing so the new us that came into our being when we gave our life’s to Him, makes us uncomfortable in the things that do not line up with Him and His Word. When we choose to let our flesh override our Spirit and stay comfortable in the things of the world, we are in fact being complacent and hurting ourselves with stopping our own growth.

If I told you that I had a million dollars that belonged to you and it was right here in front of you, what would you do? I hope you said take it. The problem is when we hold on to the complacency in our life we are stopping our own blessings from coming to us. Now it is one thing for me to hold your money away from you, but quite another when you stop yourself from getting what belongs to you.

By being comfortable in things of this world that we know are not right, we are in fact stopping ourselves from receiving our blessings and being all that God intends for us to be.

My questions to you today are these: Are you comfortable in the Lord? Are you at ease in your walk for Christ? Are you strong and strengthened in your walk for Christ? Are you complacent in your walk with the Lord?

As always the decision is yours.

God Bless,
rECj/LJG