Satisfaction And Complacency Should Be Guarded Against At All Costs

 November 25, 2014

Satisfaction And Complacency 

Should Be Guarded Against 

At All Costs

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity,

but of 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 to his family and friends while he was in captivity, and last week I posted some excerpts from some of his communications. One of those excerpts has been 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)

I find that it is pretty 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. Although I am involved in several community and church related activities, I know that I am not fully engaged, I am reluctant to fully commit myself to these endeavors. Because I know myself, I know that a reason for my hesitancy lies deep within my soul where self-doubt robs me of the confidence I need to step out and launch into a new calling on my life. Allowing God to overcome my doubts, and instill a new confidence within me, is a critical success factor in my life.

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. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.