Never Be Satisfied

One of the worst things we can do in our spiritual life is to be satisfied.  Being satisfied is just another way of defining complacency.  Jesus warned against this as He told the disciples, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."  (Matthew 5:48). The Apostle Paul pointed us in the same direction as he wrote, "...forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."  (Philippians 3:13-14).  The writer of Hebrews sounded a similar note as he wrote, "...we must pay greater attention to what we have heard." (Hebrews 2:1).   

We cannot give in to being satisfied.  Even if we have walked with Jesus for what seems like more than a life time, even if we have read and studied the Word until it seems like the language of our heart, and even if no one can find fault with evidences of love and compassion flowing from within us, we cannot allow ourselves to pause even for a moment with the spirit of self satisfaction.  Self satisfaction gives birth to comparisons of ourselves with others instead of Christ and it allows us to put ourselves on that perilous perch which gives us permission to judge others.    While all these things are true, an even greater danger is the way being satisfied in our spiritual life cuts us off from the new things the Holy Spirit seeks to do in and through us.  

The Spirit is never through with us.  He is always seeking to take us to new levels of intimacy with Christ and into a greater awareness of the way the presence of God can permeate every single part of our life.  The Christian journey is never about arriving, but of going.  It is never about trusting ourselves, but of trusting Christ.  It is never about finishing, but striving forward.  The self satisfied may enjoy themselves, but they can never enjoy the fullness of life with the Christ who is always calling us to follow Him on the journey toward Home.