Posts Tagged ‘comfort’

It’s been said that no one can do everything but everyone can do something. Sadly, we like our comfort so we often refuse to even look at what needs to be done. If we don’t read or hear about it, we feel “off the hook” to do anything about it.

Isaiah 32:9-10 say, “Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech. In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; for the grape harvest fails, the fruit harvest will not come.”  These verses can prick a conscience.

Isaiah was warning these women who were living in ease. In their wealth and ease, they did not bother with the needs of others. They were not affected by the poverty around them. He warns them that they will not be so comfortable for long. Soon, there will be no fruit to gather and no “joyous houses” (verse 13) left in the city.

At this moment in time the Christian world is talking about the injustices and flat out horrors of Planned Parenthood. But, what are we doing to try to end it?  We were vocal about our outrage at the political legalization of “homosexual marriage.” Now, we have forgotten and allowed it all to be “water under the bridge,” believing we can’t “fix it” (event though we still know it’s broken).

We continue to live our comfortable lives. We allow the complacency of being able to read and complain on social media to be enough for us. We live lives of ease while evils triumph. We talk like we care but we do nothing. Faith without works is dead. James 2:17.

That culture of death and destruction is coming closer to those who are complacent. I know that this includes me. We ignore the expectations the Lord has of us in our times of plenty, including the expectation to act against evil (Ephesians 5:11) in the world. In his commentary on these verses, Matthew Henry makes a pointed observation. He says, “The abuse of plenty is justly punished with scarcity.” Is what we hear about scarcity coming to us true?

Scarcity may come in food or money — or joy. It may show up in the family (as our culture is working hard to destroy it). We may experience scarcity in preaching of the Word of God as He gives us understanding of what life without Him may be like (Amos 8:11). None of these are appealing but it would be understandable if God would allow us to know this kind of scarcity as He has seen scarcity of faith, obedience to His Word and action proving our love for Him.

None of us can right every wrong in this world. None of us, though, can justifiably sit by in complacency and allow it all to happen because we are so busy enjoying the good life as babies are murdered and the family is undermined.

We can’t do everything but we can do something. What will you and I do to get out of our comfortable complacency?