Devotional: Complacency

Zephaniah 1:12 And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil. (KJV)

The New King James Version renders the verse above like this:

"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.' (NKJV)

This verse stood out to me as I was reading my Bible recently. Complacency is an offence to Almighty God. I looked the word up in the dictionary. This is what it said:

"excessively pleased with oneself; contented; self-satisfied"

I see complacency as being prideful, contented with one's own self. Complacency says, "God is not involved in my life, I am the captain of my own fate." It is feeling smug about one's own accomplishments and not giving glory to God.

In reading Jerry Bridges' book, "Respectable Sins", I find the chapter on pride to fit in nicely with this devotional that I started writing several weeks ago. Although he doesn't mention the word complacency, I see that what he talks about is a form of complacency. He touches on the following in his book.

Complacency can come in the form of the Pharisee who said, "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican." (Luke 18:11) Jesus related this story to those who "trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others". (Luke 18:9) It's a self-righteousness that looks down it's bony nose at others who are not as "righteous" as we are.

Oh, how easy it is to be like this! How often have we sat around in our group of church friends and smugly talked about the sins of society and how thankful we are to have "seen the light" and are not like that? This is complacency. In reality we are all capable of the gross sins of society, it's only by the grace of God that we aren't involved in them. That is nothing to be proud of, but rather a humbling thought as it brings home the fact of our sinful natures.

How often do we live our lives like this, either proud of our accomplishments or proud that we are more righteous than others? I am ashamed to admit that I have done this very thing and God is not pleased. May we seek to honor Him in the attitudes of our hearts and lives.