Why am I complacent towards God?

I've been thinking about adding to these poems and scribblings for a while, and I have been writing a really nerdy theology essay on the early Church realising its identity, however my dad suggested that I write the things that were on my heart rather than on my mind, so below are some thoughts on something that been a real challenge for me - Why am I complacent towards my great God? Why are we complacent towards my great God? I'd like to know your thoughts too.

Getting our priorities right.

A large part of this comes down to our personal relationship with God. In a way, I’m not talking about prayer or even reading the Bible (calm down brethren - there is good reason!), Im talking about our motivation to first see God glorified and made big in both our current and future lives. After all, isn’t this why we are here - to make much of God? If God meant all that he should mean to us then our life plans will revolve around him, rather than careers, potential spouses, university, etc… Our goals, attitudes and actions will be guided by the knowledge that He is Lord and all we have is rightfully His. Of course these things are important to think about, some of them are even necessary for life, however, if God isn’t the reason for them, they lack any satisfactory significance or importance - “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” If this happens, then everything will follow, whether that be personal devotion, prayer, or plans for life, you will find that they come far more easily than ever before. I was talking about this topic with a friend, and what he said to me particularly struck a chord, “From my perspective unless one has a relationship (by that I mean one whereby God is an ever present presence due to your fervency, so much so that the Holy Spirit becomes tangible in your daily living) with God, how can we be expected to prioritise Him and give credence to the things of God? But it follows naturally, that someone can only get to that place after prioritising Him.”

We are thirsty people.

How many times have our hands tapped, our eyes flicked and our knuckles cracked as we wait for the prayer time to end? When was the last time we really enjoyed praying? When was the last time we felt God speaking to us? When was the last time we felt God’s tangible presence in our prayer times? (That escalated quickly) The great thing about us humans is that we are thirsty people. We have a natural urge within ourselves to be fulfilled, to be satisfied. This thirst should make me want to chase after the living water of Jesus, but instead I try to find different things that may take the edge off my thirst, things such as social media, competitive sport, even something mundane like going to the gym. We see it all around us; advertisements promoting various products that will fill our time and bring us happiness, gadgets that will tire us out, then pills that will heal us and give us the rest needed to start the process all over again. When we compare the attitudes of our secular driven society, to that of the Word of God, we see a huge difference. Jesus says in Matthew 11, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” In our world, which loads our bodies and minds with media, solutions and temporary satisfaction, lets make the conscious choice to lay that at the foot of the cross, and give ourselves over to the freedom and satisfaction of Jesus, that will forever quench our thirst. 

We are hungry people.

I am a pendulum, I literally swing between praying intensely and praying lightly. One day I'm striving for revival, and then the next day, I'm waiting for the prayer meeting to end so I can check my whatsapp. But how, in any way, shape or form, is this consistent with the life of a spirit-filled believer? The answer is simply that its not. My lack lustre sense of devotion, my inability to close my eyes and pray alone, my ineptitude at seeking first the kingdom of God rather than checking my news feed is all part of this inconsistency. Devotion demands consistency. Now I’m sure you can just read the biography of a Christian to know that walking with Jesus isn’t an easy feat, that it is full of of distractions, but I’m also sure, that all these people would say with confidence that the joy of walking with Jesus, far outweighs the pain of not seeking him. See, week after week, we can feel justified by attending church and even a mid-week meeting, yet our hearts and minds are still on our computer screens or Facebook profiles. We might even consider personal devotions once in a while - yet still we find a distinct lack of satisfaction hangs over us. There is no better advice I can give that to get on and change it. Both a friend and my Dad recommended this idea to me: ‘The solution to hunger is to keep an energy bar with you at all times - so keep the word of God flowing through you at all times. Instead of checking your Facebook feed every ten minutes to see what friends are saying, lets check the word regularly to see what our God is saying.’

Is there a solution?

David is the prime example of a man who saw both ends of this process, and who in my mind found ‘balance’ to the pendulum, in the Psalms he provides us with a solution for when feel spiritually dry and unable to seek God.

“O God, You are my God;

Early will I seek You;

My soul thirsts for You;

My flesh longs for You

In a dry and thirsty land

Where there is no water.”

Here, David lays out his desire to seek God. In a world where sin runs rampant, in a spiritually dry and empty land, he seeks for God to satisfy his thirst and saturate his heart. David’s search for God begins ASAP, early in the morning, as soon as he gets up - “Early will I seek you”. Why? Because he has thirst which he knows only God can quench. His very body longs for God, and he wants to spend every moment filling himself with God. Joshua also proclaims a process of passionate living, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord!”

Just reread this verse, notice the elements mentioned: fear of the Lord, service, sincerity, truth and commitment. Look at your heart, at society, look at social media, look at sport, at romance, at anything in which we are able to participate in - even church. How many of these things are full of this list? Its up to us to ask God to let his Spirit flow through us and make the changes needed in the world. Just look at the lives of Joshua and David, they are prime examples of walking with God. They were men after God’s own heart - and I don’t see why we can’t be sons and daughter after the Father’s heart either? I want to be a man after God’s own heart, but in all honesty, I’m a disgraceful failure; however, God in his great love for us died to give us life and relationship, to give us an opportunity to ‘start again’, to give us the opportunity to chase him. Today is a great time to start.