Turning on the spotlight

And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and punish the men Who are settled in complacency, Who say in their heart, 'The LORD will not do good, Nor will He do evil.' – Zephaniah 1v12

We are really thick sometimes. We just don’t get it. We think that we can hide things from God. The people of Jerusalem though they were pulling a fast one on God and carrying on with their sin.

But God gave them a stern warning. ‘I am going to search our Jerusalem to find and punish those who are settled in complacency’

Complacency is the attitude of ‘I don’t care.’ It is a terrible sin because it is not one we talk about very much but it is one that is so easy to fall into. The KJV used the phrase ‘settled on their lees.’ I think this nails it. You can see folks just stuck in a rut and not really caring that they are they.

My problem is that I can find myself here if I am not careful. The hours and the weeks and the months and then the years roll by and pretty soon I look back and say ‘what have I really done for the Lord.’

That can be discouraging. When we get discouraged we can wallow there and settle on our lees. Or, we can pick ourselves up and get back at it.

It is easy to think we can hide complacency. Nobody can really see it. But God can. He casts the searchlight on our lives and finds out our sin. It may not be as bad as the complacency of the people Zephaniah talks about who say ‘The Lord will not do good or evil’ but the root is the same. We forget who we are supposed to be serving and what He has done for us.