Complacency Killed The Cat

So, in no way, shape, or form is this blog intended for anyone in particular. If anything this blog is being written as a reminder to myself of what Christ does not want for his church, and what he does not want for me.

Take a long look at that picture...tell me, is that not the most pathetic thing you have ever seen? That cat is huge!!! How did it get that way...what made that cat so fat? Of course that cat isn't going to go run, he just ate and is completely happy and content with life. He does not need anything because everything has been provided. No need to act, just lay there and get fatter, because that is what he wants to do. I wonder if at any point if the cat ever thought that his actions might hurt him. His comfort might take him to a place that could endanger his life. Being content with where he is might just take his life. Why does this cat not take action? He is hurting himself...why does he remain in a state of apathy or laziness?

Over the last 2 years of my life God has brought me to trial after trial. Spiritual battle after battle. I notice that each one of these trials comes right when I am comfortable. Whenever I feel like I am satisfied with where life is itself, God reminds me how much he is needed in every situation, even the situations that are going better than imagined.
So what happens when we are complacent? The first thing that I see in my own life is I feel like I can take care of everything that is ahead of me. There is no need to pursue God's opinion, because mine is working at the moment. I find that when I am complacent, I replace God with things that make me happy for the time being. I fill my life with comforts that are unimaginable. I become spiritually lazy, and physically lazy. I find that things that used to not motivate me, now motivate me. For example, just being in a worship service and being one on one with God doesn't mean as much to me as, sounding better than the people who sang before me. Worship is no long a privilege, it is something I do to just get people off my back, God off my back, or my conscience off my back.
Satan teaches those who are delved into complacency (including myself), that what God means by "worship is a lifestyle not a service" is that we have a new "valid" excuse for not showing up to meet with God at that designated time for just you and God. (For me that designated time is going to church on Sunday mornings and my daily quiet times)
At this point Satan sees his new creation (which is actually the destruction of an individual) as a weak, passive, apathetic, and complacent Christian. I had a very close friend tell me that Satan uses a apathetic Christian more effectively than a lost person, because the Christian has influence that man has given them. Then they use that influence to create more complacency...in other words they use their influence to show other people that Christianity is comfortable, and lacks motivation.

Literally a year ago, I went through something that I hope no one else comes into contact with. I fell into fear. I was afraid of what life outside of complacency was like. I had created a life where I was popular, competent, strong, and came across as a complete man of God. With out delving into my complete past, I will say I was stripped of everything I had built myself up to be, and was placed into a hostile, unfriendly, lonely, uncomfortable, hard environment.

I will say that God took me in my "strong" complacent lifestyle and broke me in half. He took my talent, my comfort, my life, my friends, my influence, and my heart and taught me that they were nothing without Him. Because all of them failed. But when he came into the picture, God took them and created them to be what he originally intended. God did not want me to be complacent, he wanted me to be in Him. God did not want my version of the life he had for me, he wanted his version. God did not want the image I created, he wanted me, all of me.

So I pray that you are not falling into complacency. I know what it is like to be in a place where everything is so good. But know that when your focus goes to the things that are good instead of the creator of good, you are now in a place of complacency. Come back to Christ. He is waiting with open arms. He cares, He loves, He pursues, He is a relentless God.