My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6

Worldliness amongst Christians is similar to the frog in a pot of water being heated to boiling. We think how terrible that the frog can’t discern the danger quickly enough to jump out in time, yet ever so gradually, we pursue the wrong things, form the wrong attachments, and waste our time, talents, and money on fruitless activities.

 Worldliness inoculates us from a purposeful pursuit of God and a passionate, Christlike love for others. Instead of single-mindedly seeking God’s kingdom and investing in matters of eternal value, we seek diversion and mindless amusement.

 When we need an answer, we turn to Google instead of God. When we want something, we purchase from amazon instead of petitioning the Almighty. When we need someone to hear out struggles, we post on Facebook instead of going facedown before our Father. How convenient to have products and information so easily accessible, but like the Laodiceans in Revelation 3:14-22, we can be deceived believing we have everything we need, yet we are poor, blind, and naked in the ways that really count.

 Here are a few examples I found throughout the course of my day. I spent a few hours researching a hotel but only a few minutes praying. Leaving Walmart, after purchasing a $64 Lego set for my son, I passed right by a person on the street side with as sign “Please Help.” Before going to sleep, I read half of a Christian novel, but had rushed into my day after only a short reading from God’s word. While those choices in themselves hopefully do not indicate a lukewarm attitude, I regularly need to examine the pattern of my life to see if I am living according to the faith I have professed in our immortal, invisible God.

 Each year contains 525,600 minutes. Our lives are comprised of minute decisions. What is pattern of our trajectory – enmeshed in the world or anchored in the eternal? Unlike the frog, we are not stuck in the near-boiling water without a means of escape. It is not too late for us because Jesus offers redemption from our self-centered living.