The Spiritually Lazy Saint

I missed the Men’s Meeting at church last night. I deeply regret that I couldn’t make it. Assembly with the saints is important. Not just assembly for prayer and worship, but assembly to stir each other up.

We are all capable of being spiritually lazy saints. It is easy to believe that the purpose of a spiritual life is to gain peace. We picture “spirituality” as something that happens alone on mountain tops or in quiet  secluded forests. The world is loud and harried and we consider our spirituality as a means of a peaceful retreat from the world. 

That’s just not biblical spirituality. The true test of our spirituality occurs when we come up against injustice, degradation, ingratitude, and turmoil, all of which have the tendency to make us spiritually lazy. While being tested, we want to use prayer and Bible reading for the purpose of finding a quiet retreat. We use God only for the sake of getting peace and joy. We seek only our enjoyment of Jesus Christ, not a true realization of Him. This is the first step in the wrong direction. All these things we are seeking are simply effects, and yet we try to make them causes.

When we get together we should be stirring each other up, encouraging each other to mission.  Quiet times with God are not ends in themselves; they should be times of refreshment before return to action. Jesus Christ never encourages the idea of retirement— He says, “Go and tell My brethren . . .” (Matthew 28:10 ).

I know that kind of stirring up happened last night and I’m sorry I was not able to make it.

I would have been greatly blessed. I hope you were.

Nick