Yes, I had been bitten by the complacency bug. A year prior, I began noticing an issue with one of my toenails, which was terribly sore, swollen, and discolored. I tried a few home remedies, but the longer the issue continued, the laxer I became regarding finding a permanent solution. My natural soaks and solutions brought pain relief, so I found myself a bit smug in the fact that I had saved on medical costs and doctored the issue with my own clever skills. But that pride was cut down to size when the nail shattered, exposing a periungual wart. What started off the size of a pinhead, smooth and not visible to the naked eye, had festered into a huge, ugly viral infection that engulfed the entire nail bed. Once the virus entered the skin and was left untreated, the abnormal growth of cells caused a massive mess. And my own unresponsiveness and inaction was at fault.
The dictionary defines complacency as a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger or defect, a smug satisfaction with an existing condition. Yes, that was me, the self-ordained podiatrist. But according to the prophet Zephaniah, it was so with Judah also, except they had grown spiritually complacent. Zephaniah was a unique prophet; he was not a farmer as was the prophet Amos, he was an educated insider, a distant relative of King Hezekiah, a man with a distinguished bloodline. But he saw a pressing issue within his beloved nation. Judah had settled into a fog of complacency, convincing themselves that the Lord would not intervene regardless of their behavior, a people that said “in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.
Zephaniah warned his spiritually-tepid countrymen that God will “cut off man from off the land,” He would stretch out His “hand upon…them that are turned back from the LORD,” those “men that are settled on their lees,” the lukewarm, those indifferent to the malignancy of the sin they were ignoring. Zephaniah stern warnings would influence young King Josiah to lead a revival in Judah, but that revival would be short-lived, and the succeeding four kings would lead Judah past the point of no return.
When responding to spiritual truth, we have three choices: we are either hot (responsive), cold (openly rebellious), or lukewarm (indifferent, complacent). God rewards the hot, reaches out in love and grace to the cold, but vehemently rejects the lukewarm. What is MY spiritual temperature? Am I guilty of ignoring that small warts in my spiritual life, those seemingly insignificant distractions that quietly pull me away from my Father? Am I stimulated to action by God’s Word, motivated to grow closer to my God, or am I stagnant in my response to His working in my life? I pray that my spiritual temperature, and that of the country I love, is never lukewarm in His holy sight.
Revelation 3:15,16 I know thy works, that thou are neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert hot or cold. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Set my soul on fire, Lord! Keep me away from the sin of complacency and lukewarmness by keeping my heart clean, pure, and on fire for You.