Our Sunday School teacher always delivers a good message. He gave a message called “It's a slow fade.” He noted that a declining commitment to God is often a slow process like turning a large ship or making a political change (other than during crisis). When things are good, people can slide into complacency.
Samson didn't recognize his drift away from his faith. Complacency is dangerous. Sometimes we need a wakeup call like Samson. Theologian John Wesley once stated that ‘what one generation winks at, the next will embrace’.
Have you ever had a GPS take you where you didn't mean to go? That happens. It is like placing a frog in a pan of cold water and heating it rather than placing the frog in the boiling water where it jumps out. What killed the frog in the pan of cold water was not the boiling water but failure to respond to the danger.
Cold is the absence of heat. Darkness is absence of light. Jesus doesn’t’ want a lukewarm church. Revelation 3:14-22. We must be careful what we allow into our lives. Proverbs 4:23-27.
We have to stop and access where we are. We have to examine ourselves for drifting. We need to wake up and be ready.
Man’s natural inclination is to go toward the dark. We can only change through the help of the Holy Spirit. The tide carries men away if we don’t work to stay in place.
Listen to the song lyrics of this Casting Crowns song, Slow Fade.
Verses for Today: Romans 13:11-12 NIV
11 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
