June 17

Day 95: Complacency

We can't deny our current weather pattern is a metaphor.

So much continuing bad news in recent days/weeks. No "end" in sight. Now we see a dark cloud over our society. This same dark cloud is permeating our churches. Realists, pragmatists, cynics like me are particularly susceptible.

It's almost like our only functional response is to take an extended break from social media.

We church people know God is there. We proclaim His sovereignty often on Sundays. Then we return to our regular defeatist programming...all with a lingering heart's prayer of "Where are You in all this, Lord?"

It's hard to see what God is doing when we don't see it.

Zephaniah 1:12 speaks to coming judgment on God's own people. "At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, 'The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.'"

God's people at that time had corporately come to a couple of faulty conclusions. 1) Their sins against God were not that important, and 2) God had become impotent; that God wouldn't do anything, good or bad.

Complacency.

Centuries later, not much had changed. Mark 6:5 tells us of Jesus in His hometown. No honor befitting a prophet received. A non-receptive audience. So it says, "He could do no mighty work there."

Complacency.

Some years later, the Sadducees were the political/religious power brokers. They only read the first five books of the OT. They did not believe in miracles, angelic beings, or in any existence after physical death.

Complacency.

(I've always wondered why they even bothered to be religious.)

Now in our day, we content ourselves with "feel good stories," virtue signaling, and maybe retail therapy...because we've concluded the miraculous works of God won't be seen in our generation. We wonder if any works of God will be seen in our generation.

Complacency.

It's almost like we've become functional Sadducees.

But, quoting Sam Storms, "The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence."

We cannot apply scientific method to God's activity. We cannot determine for ourselves what God is or should be doing. This then is where one of my very favorite verses comes into play.

Deuteronomy 29:29 says, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law."

I've quoted this before. Like I said, it's one of my favorites.

There are things God is doing in us, around us and for us that we simply will not see or comprehend. Maybe ever.

When we are given faith to believe that what God says about Himself is true; that He is true to His promises, it's the same faith that moves us to believe He is doing something. Even something(s) right now.

What we eventually see in our society, or in our churches, may appear to be good. Or it may appear to be ill.

Expectant faith can and must overpower complacency.

Expectant faith believes our God is a good Father who gives good gifts to His children. Even in the midst of dark clouds.

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau