One random night a few years ago, I was up late on a YouTube spiral listening to Denzel Washington's acceptance speech after collecting his NAACP Award. You can tell I have a lot to do with my free time init. Anyway, during which, he said something that has stuck with me ever since: "ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship". I honestly think that will go down as one of the great quotes in history and evennn if it doesn't, it made me personally contemplate the ways in which I prioritise ease over progress. I thought about my faith, the most important aspect of my life, and whether I was sacrificing spiritual growth for comfortability. The first thing that crossed my mind was whether I was on fire for God, whether I was active in my faith or whether I was "resting on my laurels".
As of right now, I have the knowledge and understanding that the state I was in back then was lukewarmness. I was a living, breathing, walking example of what happens when we are content walking in mediocrity, rather than freedom, authority and truth. We broach into the territory of lukewarmness when we willingly ignore God's calling and will for our lives. Now, that sounds serious, but at the time I didn't know the depth of such a statement. So, what actually is lukewarmness? What does it mean to be lukewarm? How can a person be lukewarm? I swear that was for like water or something? A quick look into the thesaurus provides synonyms such as 'lackadaisical', 'indifferent', 'tepid', 'apathetic', 'disinterested', 'unconcerned', 'unresponsive', 'limp', 'emotionless', 'couldn't-care-less', 'unenthused'. The list goes on. The nature of the words here aren't positive ygm, but the reality is that is what we are when we choose not to take our faith seriously. Limp. We are warm, not hot, not cold. Not up, not down, but in the middle, we are practically sitting on the fence between God and the enemy.
That, in essence, is a large part of the problem with lukewarmness. It's the lack of zeal and emotion, the indecisiveness almost. It says "I'm satisfied with what I have and I don't need any more", which goes against what Christianity is about. It shows that there is no true commitment, no need for Jesus, a lack of true acceptance of the sacrifice that He made for us. Imagine somebody loving you fully and unconditionally, offering you more than you could ever receive elsewhere and in response harbouring a "couldn't-care-less" attitude. It's complacency in the highest order. But that is what we are when we are half-and-half. We jeopardise our own salvation and our own eternity and ultimately our own souls as a result of our hardened hearts and complacency. Revelation 3:17 sums it up perfectly, stating "you say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing'. But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked". How can we, knowing full well that we would not be able to enter the gates of heaven were it not for the gift of God, say we do not need a thing? How? How can we say we do not need Jesus' sacrifice on the cross? How can we be saved without faith? These are all things that we know we need. How can I enter God's house without knowing Him? At heart, we aren't good people, if you're looking at just the Ten Commandments alone, we have all lied, stolen, dishonoured our parents and thought unholy thoughts at least once, even blasphemed (and that's not even all of them). That shows that we ARE ALL "wretched, pitiful, poor and blind" because of our sin and our unbelief and our mess and our evil and that is exactly WHY we NEED Jesus.
You are throwing the sacrifice that was made for us in the bin, as in like, literally dashing it. 2 Peter 2:21 says "it would have been better for them not to know the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed onto them". It's the notion that you KNOW what is wrong but you keep doing it anyway, and the harsh truth being that that is worse than not knowing what is right and what is wrong. You are settling in your mediocrity rather than constantly turning to Him for guidance and direction. It's that secret love of sin you have privately, your ashamedness to declare your faith publicly and your obligatory and performative activities (such as joining (online) church from time to time) out of religiosity rather than reverence that is holding you back. It's the fact that that is the real extent of your faith, but yet you still call on the name of Jesus as though you truly know Him. That is why it is so detestable to God, so much so to the point that Revelation 3:16 says "because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth". It's a scary image but a reality that has to hit home at some point. God HAS to be your everything in order for you to have a healthy relationship with Him, that is through daily fellowship, prayer, an understanding of His word and accepting holiness as your lifestyle (note how I said ‘understanding’ and not just 'reading').
Compare it to your physical lives: 1 day without eating and you're pretty hungry, 3 days and you're practically starving, 1 month and you're dead. Well, that's the same spiritually too, a day without fellowship with God and you're spiritually weak, 2 weeks and you're spiritually sick, on your last legs in fact. Now imagine someone saying to you "I'll be fine. I'm more than happy just eating every 2 weeks". You'd be fearing the worst. That is how we should be thinking about our spiritual lives as well, we wouldn't treat our physical bodies like that, so why would we knowingly refuse to give our spirits the daily nourishment it needs? Your physical and spiritual wellbeing are equally as important.
Your own deep and intimate relationship with Him is necessary and you can't achieve this by being half-hearted and ashamed. Mark 8:38 literally writes "if anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes in His Father's glory with the Holy angels". More? Cool. Matthew 7:21 says "not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father is in heaven". It's a sobering picture but I'm using these verses to show that it's not just me speaking out of my own understanding or personal opinion, neither am I trying to be that street evangelist shouting that we're all going to hell, it's what is written plain and clearly in God's word🤷🏾♂️ It is a delusional mindset to convince yourself that you are right with God whilst muting your conscience. It's not helpful to you or your spirituality. Or to anyone really.
I am not perfect. Obviously. Otherwise I would be Jesus. Which I am not. Obviously. I was complacent and lukewarm too, worthy to be spat out🤧 As I said before, I was comfortable. My whole teenage life was textbook lukewarmness. I went to church every so often, I was satisfied attending on just the major holidays, a seasonal Christian if you will, but I told myself that was satisfactory in the eyes of God, maybe like a B-. I didn't pray, my bible was collecting dust as if it were some ancient relic. At least I wasn't like, uno, a murderer, I wasn't a rapist, like God would just see me as a decent lad ygm. I would use other people (Christian or not) to satisfy my complacency. This is what it looks like to compare downwards. It's the "oh at least I'm better than them" mentality.Toxic.
On the flip side, I was around people that were active in their churches, perhaps leading their choirs, people that spoke boldly about their faith. I would even find myself feeling convicted around people that were taking their faith seriously from time to time, To me, I couldn't compete, these were the A* Christians, the people that were just a lil bit, erm, "extra". I didn't need to do all of that, I believed I didn't have the capacity for it anyway. They were just the unnecessarily overzealous Christians that behaved like they were a 21st Century Moses. This is what it looks like to compare upwards. Unbeknownst to me, these were the people that were living and active whilst I was spiritually dry and limp. I was content in my lukewarmness whilst they were serving God's purpose for their lives.
Don't be like me. Your assurance of salvation does not come from other people's lives. It comes from God. Be active for yourself. Be on fire. How could I claim to be a Christian when I had little to no relationship with God? How could I expect to be welcomed into the kingdom of heaven? How could I expect to be invited into God's house when I didn't know Him?
Thankfully, I have a better understanding of God's word now. Simply taking the time to foster my own faith and read my Bible has taught me that:
Jesus died on the cross for me (Romans 5:8),
I can't please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6),
I need to love God (and I can't do this without knowing Him lol) (Matthew 22:37),
I was created for His glory and that I belonged to Him (Isaiah 43:7),
I don't have to be perfect (Isaiah 55:1)
and that there is a punishment for failing to follow His commands (Deuteronomy 8:5).
With this newfound understanding of God's grace, love and mercy, I could truly begin to accept Him as my Saviour. I can understand that I shouldn't be content with my lukewarmness. As Christians, being 'hot', or spiritually 'on fire' should be our aim and priority. We should constantly be desiring to serve and grow by utterly and completely devoting our lives to Christ. Paul, one of the most well-known apostles, writes in Romans 12:11 that we should "never be lacking in zeal, but to keep our spiritual fervor, serving the Lord". When you look at the great things Paul achieved with his faith, you begin to recognise the true nature of what devoting our lives entails. The definition of an apostle is a "vigorous and pioneering advocate" and that is the kind of energy we need to stay away from that complacent mentality. Those are big words still.
That doesn't mean I, or any other Christian, does not make mistakes. Everyone still has their seasons where they may feel distant from God, but the difference is that there is always an understanding that without Him, I don't HAVE anything because I don't KNOW anything. That's why this is not about you, it's not me condemning or judging you, I don't even have the authority to do that. Instead, take this as encouragement, just as I plan to do too. Normally in a situation like this, people would say 'make 2021 the year you make a change' or 'try to within the first 6 months'. No. Let's push ourselves to make that decision today, push ourselves to seriously self-scrutinise, to self-reflect, to take an honest and introspective look at ourselves and examine the posture of our hearts and ask ourselves whether we should be going deeper with our faith.
Am I justifying myself by upwardly or downwardly (or both) comparing myself to others?
Is this just a religion to me or is it more than that? Do I have a genuine relationship with God?
Is my prayer life reflective of that? Do I frequently go to God with deep, extended and honest prayers?
Am I a lukewarm Christian at the moment? Is ease the greatest threat to my spiritual progression?
Let us remove ourselves from our comfort zones and not allow ease to be what threatens our spiritual growth, or worse yet, our salvation. Whether you are in lukewarmness, whether you are backslidden, whether you are spiritually dry or even spiritually dead, there is still the opportunity to walk in freedom, to have faith, to rejoice, to live. Let us have a yearning to seek God's face earnestly, faithfully and diligently throughout the year and not just from time to time and definitely not just in January. With full zeal and fervor, with no half-heartedness, shame, or tepidness, let us completely commit our lives and our hearts to God and be on fire for Him.
I pray this touched you in some way, shape or form.
God bless you and have an amazing 2021.