Tag: patience

The Danger of Complacency

“I will search with lanterns in Jerusalem’s darkest corners to punish those who sit complacent in their sins. They think the LORD will do nothing to them, either good or bad.” Zephaniah 1:12

It’s been said that we become like the gods we worship. Whatever we continually behold, we consistently reflect. Some of God’s own children have so lost sight of His Majesty, power, and authority that they shrugged their shoulders and chose to live the way they so desired.  They reduced God’s influence to that of a lifeless idol. Furthermore, they projected their own indifference onto him, thinking he cared very little as to whether people did right or wrong, as if he himself would never react to sin or respond to righteousness. The word complacent in this passage is akin to the process of curdling, thickening, or settling into. In other words, when we let go of our own conviction, and when we stop caring about sin (and worse yet, when we somehow think that God is on the same page), something destructive settles within us. Our faith curdles; our sin becomes like quicksand, and we shrug our shoulders over the consequences of it all. God will have none of it. He is not indifferent about anything.  God will have none of it.  Never confuse God’s patience with complacency. Sin has its consequences and righteousness has its rewards. If you know someone who is complacent in their sin, pray and fast for them. It’s no small thing to God. A day of reckoning is coming unless they wake up and repent.

Ask the Lord to show you if you’ve misjudged Him in any way.  

Author: Susie Larson, Prevail, Day 214

Powerful warning! Let us be people of faith who fear (reverence) God.

Thank you for your time.

Carl

The Way of A Fruitful Life

“Let any one who has a garden ask the gardener what makes the plants grow so luxuriantly, what makes them produce such sweet and pretty flowers. He will answer, ” The warm summer sun and the damp dew of evening, the cold north wind and the drenching rain, — these all help forward the growth of your plants. Were it not for each, the flowers would not be so bright and blooming.”

Just so it is with the children of God, who are called “trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord.” Sometimes they are in trouble; affliction of some kind comes upon them, which tries them, and makes them to grow in faith and patience. Then, again, the Lord raises them up, causing his face to shine upon them, just as the sun warms and revives the earth when the winter is past.

Oh, yes, the Lord’s people require both the north and the south wind to blow upon them, that they may bring forth much fruit to the glory and praise of God.

“Awake, O north wind; and come thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.” (Caut. iv, 16)”

From Martin Luther edited by Miss Whately (1897)

All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. (Hebrews 12: 11)

May the blessings of God be upon your life as you experience all the trials and tribulation that living in this world brings. May your “garden” bring forth much fruit.

Carl