Familiarity Breeds Contempt: Rooting Out Complacency

Familiarity brings cynicism, discouragement, disillusionment, resentment, skepticism, division, and steals your purpose. 

This silent killer comes in to cause havoc in our spiritual lives. We get comfortable and get consumed with the things of this world. Our walk with God becomes common, something that so easily takes the back burner until we feel disjointed and disconnected where once we felt a burning passion for the things of God. Not only that, it steals your urgency for reaching the lost. 

We can never become complacent with the things of God, because there is always more of Him! We can have as much of Him as we want, but you have to go after Him with all your heart! 

“The moment we think we’ve arrived, is the moment we stop moving.” - Jim Boyd

A Holy Hunger

We should want to go deeper with God, not out of religious obligation or duty, but genuine love for Him. God always moves when there is unity. It is no surprise that the enemy is attacking this area in the church. 

Satan thrives when there is division. He can’t steal your salvation but he will try to get you to forget what it means to be lost, to make your salvation something that you take for granted. He wants to make you dry and cold and lose the spark of your first love! That way, you won’t reach out to others who so desperately need to hear of the love of Jesus Christ so they can also be transformed! 

 We cannot allow him to make us ineffective, so concerned with the troubles of this world.

We have to get our passion back! 

‭‭Colossians‬ ‭3‬:‭23‬-‭25‬ ‭TPT‬‬

“Put your heart and soul into every activity you do, as though you are doing it for the Lord himself and not merely for others. For we know that we will receive a reward, an inheritance from the Lord, as we serve the Lord Yahweh, the Anointed One! A disciple will be repaid for what he has learned and followed, for God pays no attention to the titles or prestige of men.”

When we work as unto the Lord, all the things we are worried or offended about grow strangely dim. When we work for the Lord, it doesn’t matter what color the carpet is or if the church didn’t have your favorite coffee creamer this week. It’s time for God’s people to come together in one accord and be about the Father’s business. 

Familiarity Undermined Judas

Judas got to be under Jesus’ teaching and ministry for three and a half years! He got to see miracle after miracle, including a dead man raised to life! However, the precious became familiar and dull. The miracles became ordinary. He compromised his integrity, stealing from the purse and eventually led the priests to Jesus. He betrayed the Son of God with a kiss. 

A verbal declaration is meaningless unless we actually follow Jesus with our actions. Judas followed Jesus and he still fell away, because things weren’t going the way he had built them up in his mind to go. Jesus wasn’t following Judas’ agenda. 

Get the Spark Back! 

How do we reignite a flame that has been lost, a flame that used to burn so brightly for Jesus? 

1. We Must Fight Off Boredom

Boredom does not come from having nothing to do, it comes from having nothing worth doing. Bored people are self-focused people. 

Romans 12:9-16 NKJV

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”

This is the whole point of why Jesus came to earth and why He commanded us to go and preach the Good News to all nations. When this becomes our focus, how could we ever be bored? Our focus shifts from ourselves to others and reaching them with the love of God. ‭

2. Change the Routine

Isaiah 43:18-19

““But forget all that— it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”

‭‭God wants to do a new thing! It’s so easy to recycle the same things over and over. The same prayers.

Same Bible reading plan. We think we have it all figured out.

When we get lazy with our walk with God and grow complacent, it limits what God can do through us. It’s time to let God surprise us and challenge us again! 

3. Take a Risk

No one wants to take a risk anymore, but there is risk in following Jesus. When was the last time you allowed God to use you in a way that challenged you? When was the last time you deviated from your normal routine and comfort zone to show someone the love of Jesus? 

“You won’t walk on water until you step out of the boat!” - Jim Boyd

Peter gets a bad rap for not having enough faith and letting the storm distract him, but he was the only one who took the risk while the other 11 disciples were just sitting in the boat! 

What Can You Do This Week?

What’s the one thing you could do to take a risk? What do you need to do this week to ignite the spark, do something out of your comfort zone and take a step of faith to see God move like He’s never moved before in your life? He is willing and able to work through you to reach the lost and dying of this world. The question is, are you a willing vessel?