Complacent: “Smug, unbothered, untroubled; pleased with your own merits, situation and advantages without awareness of a potential danger or defect.”
Perhaps a more colloquial definition of complacency would simply be: “fat, lazy, unconcerned, disengaged, conceited, self-righteous, stagnant and apathetic.”
Whichever way you slice it, being complacent is not a good thing. Complacency is settling for a substandard situation and being unwilling or disinterested to make things better. Complacency is not the same as being satisfied. Being complacent infers an element of being stagnant and apathetic.
Being complacent is an attitude that says, “This is good enough. I don’t see the need to change. Things are fine the way they are. I am unwilling to do what is necessary to improve things. This is as good as it gets.”
Complacency leads to being stagnant: “A state characterized by a lack of development, advancement, or progress; being inactive, sluggish and dull.”
It is easy to grow complacent isn’t it?
I know I can easily grow complacent in a wide variety of areas in my life: marriage, parenting, finances, vocation, my relationship with God, my role in the church, local and global issues, volunteering, giving, mentoring, friendships, etc.
There are so many different areas of life that demand our engagement it can be difficult to be wholehearted and passionate in everything. In fact, it can be downright exhausting can’t it?
There is, however, one area of our lives we can never afford to become complacent; one area of our lives that impacts our ability to be diligent and dedicated in every other area….It is, of course, our relationship with God.
I recently read a scripture that jumped off the page at me. It was a bit of a spiritual slap in the face.
Have you ever watched a boxing match, or perhaps a boxing movie, when the fighter is slumped down on his stool in the corner between rounds? He is dopey from the beating he’s taking so they put some smelling salts under his nose to “wake him up”. I have no idea what that smells like, but it’s some kind of olfactory defibrillator to jump start his awareness and focus.
That’s a little bit of what this scripture was like…
Zephaniah 1:12
“At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think, ‘The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.’”
The verse speaks about men who have no belief or faith that God is actually involved or engaged in our lives. He is distant, disengaged and disinterested. He will not do anything good in our lives, nor will be do anything bad. He does not reward righteousness. He does not punish wickedness.
Complacency in this case is defined as someone who doesn’t believe God is active in our lives and the lives of others. “Whatever will happen will happen – what I do doesn’t matter.” Or perhaps, “I can’t trust God to be good, to move on my behalf – It’s all up to me.” Or maybe, “I really don’t have to deal with this sin in my life, nothing is going to change.”
It would appear that the first step out of complacency is to recognize that God is alive, He is near, He is interested, He is engaged in our lives, and how we live matters. The Lord wants us to know He means what He says and the choices we make have consequences – whether we make the choice or not.
Because, as you know, not making a decision is making a decision. By refusing to make a decision you have made your decision.
So, are there decisions you need to make, actions you must take in order to break out of complacency? God is alive and active in your life. What you do matters. He is looking for men who are not content with complacency, but who choose to believe that God cares. The Lord is looking for men who fight complacency by committing their hearts fully to Him.
So, have you grown complacent? He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
Proverbs 1:32
“For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them;”
2 Chronicles 16:9
“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”
Hebrews 11:6
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”