The Dangers of Complacency! (Monday Morning Mail)

Good morning!

When we're desperate for something, when we see that we really need help, we pray about it far more than we do at other times. I've seen that in my own life, and we've seen it in the life of St Jude's as well over the years. In fact, God sometimes allows difficult things to happen so that we can learn to depend on him more.

One of the big dangers is that when things improve, when they get more comfortable, we stop seeing our need for God as much and so we get complacent and stop praying as much. One of the big dangers for us as a church is that we are far too easily satisfied with our own spiritual lives, with the state of our church, with seeing God at work in our community.

We saw that yesterday at 11am when we looked at Philippians 3:7-14. Philippians is the letter where we see real Christian contentment the most clearly. Paul is hungry and in prison and he writes that he has learnt the secret of being content in any and every situation. But that just makes the contrast with chapter 3 all the stronger. What we see in this passage is that when it comes to our walk with God, what we really need is godly discontent. Paul's language is full of it. He forgets what is behind and presses on towards what is ahead. He sees that even though he has planted churches and written big chunks of the New Testament, he still hasn't got to where he is going, so he pushes on. Christian maturity (v15) is not somewhere we arrive at – it is the willingness to let go of anything to keep on pressing forwards in knowing God.

We see the same in Ephesians 1. In v3-14 Paul gives perhaps his strongest-ever statement of what God has done for us in Jesus. So in v15-16, he thanks God for it, and then in v17 goes on to pray for the Ephesians to have more and more – more knowledge of God, that God would open our eyes more that we can see the hope to which he has called us, more of his power at work in us.

However big our ambition or dream for the church, or for our own walk with God, his power is far bigger, and his plans for his church are far bigger (Eph 1:22-23). If we are too comfortable where we are, too complacent, we need to catch a vision for the "more" that God calls us to.

All of it comes by God's Spirit. We can only know him better or see the hope that comes from him more by his Spirit, and God gives his Spirit in answer to our prayer. So let's make 2015 a year where we really pray for God to act by his Spirit and open our eyes that we can see the hope to which he has called us! Let's make it a year where we resolve not to be in the same place spiritually in December as we were in January, but where we press on in the adventure of knowing God better and growing in our relationship with him.

Doing that will mean a cost, of course. So often we want to be in control of our own lives; we want God on our terms and conditions, but if we want to see more of him and his power, we need to let him control more of us. Simon Ponsonby writes this:

"This unyielded heart will never know and grow in God. The church is full of saved but stunted spiritual pygmies. The person who would have more of God must give more to God. The person who would hear God must listen more to God. The person who would be filled with the Spirit must relinquish all rights... Do you desire more of God? Then yield more to him Surrender is the only key to live life in the Spirit." (More, p80-1)

May we know God's love and power more and more, and may we be filled with the faith, hope and love that come from following him increase and overflow in our lives this year!

God bless,

John