New Morning Mercies #299

God’s agenda is change. Your need is change. The promise of grace is change. The hope of eternity is the completion of the work of change.

We all tend to share in a big, bad personal problem. It’s one that doesn’t get much press or pulpit time. Yet this problem is a huge interrupter of our personal spiritual development. If you have this problem, you won’t be concerned that you have this problem precisely because you have this problem! I confess that I think this is a big deal for me as well. The problem is personal spiritual self-satisfaction. The more I travel from church to church, the more I engage with leaders, and the more I have opportunities to interview people in the seats, the more I grow convinced that the true crisis in the modern evangelical church is not dissatisfaction; it’s the opposite. We’re all too satisfied. We’re all too satisfied with who we are, where we are, and what we’re doing. We’re satisfied with a little bit of biblical literacy. We’re satisfied with occasional moments of ministry. We’re satisfied with manageable debt that allows us to put a few coins in the plate. We’re satisfied that we’ve been married for a while and it doesn’t look as if we’ll break up soon. We’re satisfied with a bit of a grasp on the theology of Scripture. We’re satisfied with faithful attendance at the weekend services of our churches. We’re satisfied with quick morning devotions. We’re satisfied with a little ministry experience. We’re satisfied that we don’t act out most of our lust and we don’t communicate most of our envy. We’re satisfied that in our disappointment with God, we don’t walk away. We’re satisfied that we can harness a good bit of our fear of man. We’re satisfied to use most of our material resources to make and keep ourselves comfortable. We’re satisfied to be mere consumers of the work of the church rather than committed participants in it. We’re satisfied with hearts that occasionally wander and with thoughts that contradict what the Bible says is good and true. We’re satisfied with the amount of conflict we have in our lives. We’re satisfied.

None of us is yet a grace graduate, but we’re satisfied. We all give evidence that we still need to grow, but we’re satisfied. And because we are satisfied, we are resistant to the grace that is our only hope. If you are able to convince yourself that you are healthy, even though there may be indicators that you are not, you are probably not going to go to the doctor asking for his diagnostic and curative skill.

But here’s what you and I need to remember: we serve a dissatisfied Redeemer. He knows we still need the transforming work of his powerful grace. Isn’t it wonderful that, in gracious dissatisfaction, he will not relent until every microbe of sin is removed from every cell of every one of the hearts of his children?

For further study and encouragement: 1 Peter 2:1–12