“I will spit you out of my mouth.“— Revelation 3:16, NIV
Medieval thinkers called it the “noonday demon.”
Call it the doldrums, spiritual leprosy, laziness, or demons. By any name, spiritual apathy leads to boredom, discontent, self-indulgence, and a constant need for gratification.
A subtle spiritual malady hardens our hearts, causing us to turn from the Giver to the gifts. We begin to glory in what we have, to want more, to never be satisfied, to love and desire things for their own sake, apart from God. We are slowly changed inside and become less and less our authentic selves as we become caricatures of who God created and gifted us to be.
Slowly, we slip from reality into unreality, anesthetizing the deepest part of our souls. Day by day, moment by moment, choice by choice, in thousands of little ways, our passion for the Lord and our love for the life He desires for us, are dulled.
Soren Kierkegaard, decrying the spiritual sloth of his era, wrote, “Let others complain that the age is wicked; my complaint is that it is wretched for it lacks passion…their lusts are dull and sluggish, their passions sleepy.“1
No wonder Jesus said about lukewarm believers, “I will spit you out of my mouth.”
He wants no part of slothful spirituality because He knows it will eventually destroy us.
The Lord hates to see us slip into the comfort zone, where it is easy to shift into neutral, cruise, and never do anything meaningful again.
That’s when our spirits shrivel up, and our vision dies, along with our hopes, dreams, and faith.
The tragedy is we are probably only realizing about ten percent of God’s blessings. When we choose not to pursue the other ninety percent, out of apathy or rebellion, we eventually lose what we already possess.
But God is always reaching out to pull us back into the blessing zone.
Please, let Him catch you.
Let Him bless you.
1. Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or: A Fragment of Life (Penguin Classics, revised 1992, original date 1843) p. 48.
