SPIRITUAL
APATHY
We wake up one fine morning and everything seems all right except
the energy to read the bible and even start praying. We often hear a voice that
tells us. “I’ll read Bible tomorrow. Today I have got much to do.” Well this is
just the beginning of spiritual apathy in our lives. Moving on, that tomorrow
seldom comes. These are times when we begin to give wrong impressions to
ourselves and the world around us that God holds the foremost position in our
list. Heights of HYPOCRISY on our part. The fact is we have mastered ourselves
in pretending and acting in this particular way that we hardly realize the
difference.
This world, our lives are full of pressures, demands, expectations,
and tasks. Our family, friends, employers, school, etc. want something or the
other from us. We find ourselves rushing through life attending to the
necessary, the immediate, and the urgent. In other words, we reach a point where finally we become insensitive and
say, "Who cares?" this is what apostle Paul spoke about in Ephesians 4:18-19.
Our problem is not the volume of demands or lack of scheduling or
skills but VALUES & PRIORITIES. Our values and priorities are reflected in
how we use our resources time, money, strength, talent etc.
Most often when we are engulfed in spiritual apathy, we become
insensitive towards spiritual matters and our love for God our Father becomes
very mechanical. We pray and read the Bible not out of love for God or because
the words from the Bible have had meaning in our lives. We do it out of
compulsion because we were born in a Christian household. Our Father does not
need such mechanical love from us. Spiritual Apathy holds the power to destroy
one’s dependency on God. May be its time for us to realize that being born in a
Christian family and having known the truth is a gift as written in James 1:17.
Our God looks at us as a Father. This is the sole reason why He
did send His son to save us. A blameless son was sent to save other sons and
daughters. In the same way He wants us to start living as His sons and
daughters. Let’s put our dad in the
place of God and ask ourselves whether we love our dad the same way we love
God… Is our love for our dad just a mere compulsion? Think about it….
It’s actually not that difficult to understand if we start
thinking how deeply we are affected by spiritual apathy. Have we ever tried to
attend the exam that Paul talks about in 2
Corinthians 13:5? But the question remains whether we want to determine our
standing as a Christian or do we lack the courage to do so.
Today Spiritual Apathy has spread like cancer deep inside
Christendom and is perhaps the best friend of Satan. Satan just loves when some
Christian students don’t really care about God and building His Kingdom. Satan
rejoices in every student who is a lukewarm.
Paul praised the congregation of Ephesus in Ephesians 1:15-16 for their love for God but the same people turned their backs on God about
whom John speaks in Revelation 2:4. The
destiny of such people has been declared in Proverbs 1:32 and Revelation
3:16.
But it’s not all lost. It’s not too late to Realize and Repent and
Renew and He promised in 1 John 1:5-9.
Nevertheless, the question still stands, What would you do?
Sourav Mohanty
Sourav works with the finance department in development sector. He is a good musician and a part of the worship team in Crossway. He can be reached at mohantysourav@yahoo.co.in
