“At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the men who are complacent, those who say in their hearts, ‘he LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill.'”

How subtle is the human heart. “I am no idolater” it says, “I serve the one true God, I believe in Jesus Christ, I have faith.”

Oh so confident in your theology, in your practice. You fulfill all the criteria, know all the right things, you even read your Bibles and pray and serve the church. How upright you think you are. And in addition you are reasonable; you are not like the radical church down the street that preaches a health and wealth gospel, or the one that has an exagerated application of spiritual gifts, or the crazy Christians who yell their heads off down-town as they street preach. Surely such Christians give Christ a bad name by their emotionalism. You are more balanced; you live quiet lives as good Christians, not expecting too much or being too dissappointed that your church doesn’t grow. After all, God is sovereign, this is where he wants you, so you’ll just stay put.

What a fine line it is between contentment and complacency! Or perhaps not. To be content is to be always filled with the knowledge of God’s grace. To be complacent is to ignore that God’s grace even exists. Do you believe? Are you one of Christs? Well Christ works mighty things! God is a just God who move on behalf of his people for the sake of his name. Is it any better to say “The LORD will not do good, nor will he do ill” than to say that God does not exist at all? For the latter condemns himself and lets it be known, but the former insults God. For he claims the name of Christ and recieves the gift of God’s Spirit in the gospel which is the power of God for all who believe, and yet in their complacency they deny it all again to the world. They make God out to be a liar and make a mockery of the cross.

You have relational problems, so Christ died to make us one in his sacrificial love. So you struggle with temptation; Jesus did too and won, and now he gives you the power to do the same. These aren’t nice thoughts or right statements to be assented to; they are a life to be lived! This is the redeemed life: to live God’s gifts.

There is a power which softens hearts, which opens blind eyes, which releases from bondage, and this power is real! Believing in the cross and life of Jesus is to live the cross and life of Jesus, suffering without hesitation for your neighbor, living in a joy that is only eternal life welling up in you. Belief is an experience, faith is an experience, not just some rational assent. It is a transformed life by the power of believing that God does work in this world and that he does so for the good of his people.

So don’t wait for God to search you out with a lamp, you who do not expect anything from God. Get on your knees before him. The arrogance of complacency is the lie of self-sufficiency. Humble yourself before him and pray the words that he gave you, and know that God is at work in you, through you, for you, for his glory.