Why is it that most of us become spiritually lazy as we accept and embrace a passive existence stumbling through the shadows of life looking for love and acceptance? Have you ever noticed that we actually go out of our way to stay off the rough roads of life? It seems that our primary objectives become securing a peaceful retreat from the world, thinking only about ourselves, and finding a hiding place from the turbulence of life. We all seem to find it so much easier to simply go along with the status quo, which over time actually leads to a life of heart-numbing mediocrity, and we settle for something less than God’s best.

Does God share with us in His word some thoughts about this? I think He does. Consider the story of Moses. God heard the cries of the oppressed Israelite slaves, and He enters history to deliver them from the tyranny of Pharaoh and the bondage of Egypt. After the captives have been set free from Egypt, God meets with them in the wilderness to make them His people. They enter into a covenant with God promising to love and to serve Him in response to His gracious acts of deliverance. God then promises them a land in which they could be His people.

God actually hangs out with these people wanting to connect with them in a loving relationship. Can you imagine that? That would be awesome! If that happened to us, we would be convinced! Convinced for life!

Wouldn’t we?

Well, let’s see what happens…

When the Israelites entered into the Promised Land, they built altars and sanctuaries to worship God and began living as His people. Years passed, they settled into the land and became way too comfortable drinking from the fountains of complacency. The passion they had once celebrated for their deliverance out of bondage slowly began to fade. Sound familiar? Many of us serve God as long as it’s convenient. For many of us, this transformation unravels from Sunday to Monday.

The priests tried to maintain the sanctuaries throughout the land and to keep the worship alive, but the people could see little advantage in serving God from their places of comfort and prosperity. They became so absorbed with their own self-interests that their commitment to God faded away. In time, their hearts became divided, and they began to worship other gods. Like so many of us today, they never totally abandoned the worship of the God who brought them out of Egypt; they simply added into that worship all the other gods they wanted to serve. They gradually began to forget who they were as God’s people and the new generation of children growing up had finally abandoned God for pursuit of their own pleasure. The book of Judges ends with one of the most chilling verses in the Bible: People did whatever they felt like doing. (MSG)

They lost perspective of God…

Does this sound vaguely familiar?

Are you getting this?
(Excerpt from Heartstone Copyright © 2009 by Tim Young. All rights reserved.)