Satisfaction And Complacency Should Be Guarded Against At All Costs

Meditations for Ragamuffins 

February 7, 2024

Satisfaction And Complacency Should Be Guarded Against

At All Costs

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid,

but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

2 Timothy 1:7 

Corporate trainers like to talk about Critical Success Factors. They will often show the WWII movie, Midway, to illustrate their point. In the movie, the Japanese Navy launched reconnaissance airplanes to search for the American Navy Aircraft Carriers. The reconnaissance mission was successful in locating the US forces, but when the aircrew tried to radio their location, they found their radio wasn’t working. Their radio was one of the critical success factors, and they had failed to check it before leaving on their mission.

In our desire to remain securely centered in God’s grace, we need to be aware of the critical success factors in our individual lives. Sometimes this is referred to as besetting sin, or the place where we are most vulnerable to drifting into a legalistic or moralistic mindset. This is where the Ancient Greek precept, know thyself, becomes essential as we seek the life in Christ as our way of life. As we learn about ourselves, we can discern what aspects of our personality are most susceptible to being tempted to turn from the matchless grace of our Abba Father and seek to meet our needs for love, acceptance, and self-worth through our own self-efforts.

Peter Kassig was murdered by ISIS on November 16, 2014. Peter wrote to his family and friends while he was in captivity. One of those excerpts is particularly haunting to me: “It is okay to be happy and content but satisfaction and complacency should be guarded against at all costs.” (Email to professors and mentors, March 2012)

My Takeaway: I am involved in several community and church-related activities. However, I find that it is easy for me to drift into a state of satisfaction and complacency, thinking that enjoying the bliss of my retirement years should be my primary goal in life.  I know that I need to guard against complacency lest I miss God calling me into new adventures.  

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2024 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.