Meditation - Convenient, Comfortable, Complacent!

Convenient, Comfortable, Complacent!

Once upon a time, the aim of humanity was survival. Now it’s convenience. There’s nothing wrong with that; it’s normal to want to do more things with less effort. Personally, I like convenience. Who wants to hitch Major to the cart whenever we trot off on errands? That said our modern conveniences are getting harder to manage

I read about a man who had too many apps on this smartphone. One night he rolled over in bed and landed on his phone. His home alarm went off, his lights switch on, his sprinklers activated, his car started, his blind opened, the refrigerator defrosted, his coffee brewed, he sent greetings to his contacts, and the juke box at the nearby café started playing “somewhere over the rainbow”

Sometimes it’s convenient to keep up with our conveniences. It’s unwise sometimes to depend on them too much. A convenient life can become a comfortable life, and a comfortable life can become complacent!

Could that be happening to us?

It’s hard to maintain a radical love for Jesus when we are surrounded by a culture of consumption and convenience.

Listen to what Moses said to the Israelites as he anticipated a day when they would be safely settled in the Promised Land: “Be careful! Don’t forget the eternal your God and disobey the commands and decrees and rules I’m giving you today. When your stomachs are full, when you’ve built comfortable houses to live in, when you have large herds and flocks, when you possess plenty of silver and gold, and when you have more things than you imagined possible, then don’t become proud and puffed up and forget Him” Deuter 8: 11-14 The Voice)

How easily that happens.

That’s the story of Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-22. This church said to itself, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing” This was a prosperous and comfortable congregation. But their comfort lulled them into complacency, and their passion became lukewarm. Jesus said to them “I will vomit you out of My mouth”

In his commentary on Revelation, John Phillips wrote “” Laodicea had been reduced to room temperature. It was neither hot nor cold, neither one thing nor the other. It was marked by complete compromise.” The city’s stale and lukewarm water became a symbol of the entire church.

We need to check our Personal Thermometers

Let’s make this personal, shall we?

If you had a thermometer that recorded the temperature of your soul, from freezing (o degree Celsius / 32 Fahrenheit) to boiling (100 degrees Celsius / 212 Fahrenheit) what would be its reading? What’s the temperature of your personal faith? The prophet Jeremiah said “His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones: I was weary holding it back and could not” Jeremiah 20:9)

The disciples on the Emmaus Road said of their time with the risen Christ “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24:32

Are we a fiery hot testimony of our Lord or has our passion about Jesus cooled off? Are we cold toward Him? Or lukewarm? We all know Christians and churches whose actions, words and deeds are so tepid they’ve lost their influence.

What does your life reveal?

We need to adjust our Spiritual Thermostats

Fortunately, we’re not just left with thermometers, we have thermostats. If you’re lukewarm you can change. If your church is lukewarm it can catch fire! The essence of spiritual Revival is allowing the Holy Spirit to fan the embers of our hearts until they reignite!

Let me share some practical steps for moving from indifference to inspiration.

First, do what Jesus told the Laodiceans to do “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent. Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” (Rev 3: 19-21)

Take Rev 3: 16 – the lukewarm verse -as a personal rebuke from the Lod. Realise that He loves you passionately. He has spoken these words in your hearing. He has spoken them to you and me. If we somehow left Jesus out in the cold, so to speak, we must zealously repent. Rush back to Him and let Him have the keys to our hearts again.

Second, realise our Lord wants to dine with you and you with Him. In other words, He wants regular, nourishing fellowship with you. He wants to feed you with scriptural food. The only way to remain on fire for Christ is through personal, daily communication with Him through His word and prayer. We need a daily dinner date, if you like, with Christ.

Third, pour yourself into whatever God has called you to do, and obey Him on a day-by-day basis. One of the verses that has guided my life is Colossians 3:23 “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.” Put yourself in life situations that challenge you to do more for Him. Your walk with God should not be comfortable and convenient – but committed and courageous.

Finally, keep your eye on the thermometer and your hand on the thermostat. Always be alert to changes of internal temperature, and be ready to correct any lukewarm tendencies. We need burning hearts more then we need comfortable lives, and we need commitment more than convenience.

What does your life reveal?

Don’t tolerate a tepid spirit.

Don’t have a lukewarm heart.

Stop living for comfort alone.

Live for Christ, and let Him rekindle a blaze in your soul!