For when I have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they have eaten and filled themselves and become fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise and scorn Me and break My covenant. – Deuteronomy 31:20, Amplified Bible (AMP)

One of the greatest dangers to our Christian walk – perhaps the greatest – is complacency. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary defines complacency as:

self-satisfaction, especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies

When life gets easy and comfortable, we often let our guard down with respect to the attacks of the devil. If we are not careful, Satan will convince us that we are the source of our prosperity, and since we’ve earned what we have, we can do what we want with our time and with our resources. Such thinking leads to the pursuit of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and God will become an afterthought in comparison to the importance we place on the idols – the things that please our flesh – that we place in front of Him.

Of course, there really are no such things as “our time” or “our resources.” Everything is God’s; He just lets us manage His stuff for awhile. Complacency, however, can cause us to forget that. When times are tough, we know we need God. When times are good, we forget that we still need God. To defend ourselves against such foolish thinking, we must stay glued to the Bible and its lessons. If we dive into the Word daily, we cannot help but see constant reminders of the penalties associated with sin. For example, there is no better reminder of the dangers of complacency than the warning found in Deuteronomy 31:20. This warning, in conjunction with the blessings and cursings associated with obedience and disobedience in Deuteronomy 28,* helps us to stay on guard in our Christian walk. If we don’t dive into the Word daily, the influences of our culture will prevail against us, and we will forget the right ways of living that God has prescribed for us.

Prosperity is a wonderful thing, and God, being the Great Father that He is, wants to give us overabundant prosperity. Our job is to make sure we don’t allow our comfort to lead us down the path of complacency and ingratitude. If we do, we shouldn’t be surprised when our comfort gives way to the tough, tough times that God will send to bring us back to Him.

* Many would argue that the blessings and cursings of Deuteronomy apply only at the national level. Deuteronomy 29:18-21 points out clearly that the same blessings and cursings apply to the individual.

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