I was lying in bed from four this morning with a powerful thought running through my mind over and over. I was frustrated because I just wanted to go back to sleep. Suddenly these words came strongly into my mind. “It’s not you! It’s not the devil! It’s Me! Get up!” I jumped up and looked at the clock. It was 4:44. So, I’ve been up and writing thoughts that keep coming to me ever since 4:44. (Unintentionally, I see triple numbers on the clock numerous times every day and God has shown me that that’s something He is using to encourage me.)

To assume that you’re in good standing with God while you’re mostly ignoring Him is a dangerous assumption! The most dangerous spiritual condition a person can be in is to think he is a Christian when he isn’t. If you’re satisfied with where you are in your relationship with Jesus, you’re nowhere near where you think you are.

If we won’t get out of the religious box and actively do God’s Word, we may find ourselves merely sitting by and being complacent. Faith in Jesus should never be cold and ceramic, but always on fire and dynamic! Biblical Christianity isn’t a theater. It’s a gym. Same ole same ole same ole is not the way to follow the risen Jesus!

God’s gift of grace doesn’t produce religious complacency. It imparts a passionate hunger to follow and obey the living Jesus. Hunger and thirst for righteousness is the sign that you’ve received God’s grace.

Christianity isn’t a religious rut. It’s a rigorous race empowered by God’s glorious grace. True grace doesn’t mean that you don’t need to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. It activates and empowers you to do so!

God’s grace keeps me from being complacent. He continually gives me more and more passion for Jesus.

Let Jesus be unlimited. Set aside anything within you that’s hindering His power and presence by surrendering to His moment-by-moment Lordship and control. Spiritual complacency is a symptom of religious pride.

Jesus never said, “Come and hear a weekly sermon about Me.” He said: “Follow Me.” Be a Christ-follower, not a religious spectator. The constant repetition of the same religious format every Sunday morning tends to lull Christians into spiritual complacency.

To follow the risen Jesus, you have to go beyond spectator Christianity! If you will go with the flow of God’s Spirit, you’ll be carried into wonder and awe! Prayer isn’t passivity; it’s spiritual warfare.

Since the Bible says, “God resists the proud,” perhaps pride should be avoided. When things don’t go your way, pride takes offense but gratitude searches for hidden blessings.

To settle into comfortable Christianity is to become spiritually complacent and proudly satisfied with religious mediocrity. When you feel like you have nothing to be proud about you are “poor in spirit.” Then Jesus says that you are blessed with access to God’s kingdom. (See Matthew 5:3.)

Jesus doesn’t call us to complacency. He calls us to actively place our trust completely in His presence. When the voice of self is louder than the voice of the living Jesus Christianity easily becomes a passive Sunday program.

Religious complacency
Is spiritual vagrancy.

Self is so loud
When I’m feeling proud
That I can’t hear
God’s humble whispers
Speaking in my heart.

A proud attitude
Is the opposite
Of gratitude.
Pride says,
“Look what I did!”
Gratitude says,
It was all God’s grace.