Complacency is the enemy of the church

He told me to tell you that

Everyday I have to remember what Jesus taught us in Luke 10:42, which is there is “one thing necessary.” Everyday I have to remember that I have to choose this “good portion.” Jesus is the one thing and Jesus is the good portion.

I connect what Jesus is telling a busy, anxious, distracted and irritable woman named Martha to what He shared in John 15, which is we have to “abide” with Him, we have to remain with the one thing, the good portion - we have to stay connected to Him or we “can do nothing.” I don’t know about you but I want to be as successful and as productive as a Christ-follower as possible.

Abiding and choosing is the part that causes us trouble. The Apostle Paul is clear that we choose daily to walk in the flesh or stay in step with the Holy Spirit. We can’t do both. Either we are being controlled by our old selves or God. We need to be reminded there is nothing good in us, only God is good (Mark 10:18); therefore, we need to depend daily on the one thing, the good portion.

What does abiding look like? How do we do that? We all know what it looks like to stay connected to social media, right? Do you ever check your screen time on your phone? What I’m saying is we know how to abide; we just don’t practice it when it involves Jesus.

My friend Ron and I often wonder if we missed Sunday school the day they taught about the significance of choosing properly the way Jesus commended Martha’s sister Mary. Mary hung out (abided) with Jesus in the living room while Martha was cooking and cleaning in the kitchen. Jesus rebuked Martha for being uptight and thinking that what she was doing was more important than worshiping (abiding) Him.

Ron and I wonder because it seems like a lot of us missed that day in Sunday school, because of that we have been doing things that don’t bear fruit and because of that Christianity might seem stale, boring and stagnant. Have people dropped out of the faith because their water never turned to wine or they have never walked on water? If they have, I get it.

What I would tell those people is don’t settle for a complacent faith. Be faithful starting today, hang out with Jesus starting today and find a community of people that have the same goals. Again, Jesus is for you and so am I, now go get’em.

He told me to tell you that.