Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

The Seriousness Of Spiritual Neglect

2 CHRONICLES 12:13–14 – So King Rehoboam grew strong in Jerusalem and reigned. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. And he did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the LORD.

THEME OF THE DAY. THE SERIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL NEGLECT. One of my favorite contemporary authors is Kevin DeYoung. He is a godly pastor, a godly family man, and a prolific writer. He wrote a book titled, Crazy Busy: A Mercifully Short Book about a Big Problem. Concerning the danger of busyness, DeYoung writes, “Busyness kills more Christians than bullets. How many sermons are stripped of their power by lavish dinner preparations and professional football? How many moments of pain are wasted because we never sat still enough to learn from them? How many times of private and family worship have been crowded out by soccer and school projects? We need to guard our hearts. The seed of God’s Word won’t grow to fruitfulness without pruning for rest, quiet, and calm.”

Yes, busyness does “kill” more Christians than bullets. Obviously, we aren’t talking literally, yet, busyness does kill our spiritual lives. It produces joyless Christianity. It reduces Jesus down to a person we occasionally talk about but don’t engage personally and intimately. Our language is more of a vague God than a daily living in fellowship with a real Jesus. We know about Him while lacking the soul-satisfying experience of knowing Him. And busyness does a number on our souls when it comes to church. We will allow worldly busyness to cause us to easily miss church without regret. Busyness may very well be our number one spiritual problem, but is it really? Is busyness, itself, the problem or is it something else? I think it is something else. I am not sure busyness is the issue. All it does is trigger the real problem; a seriously real problem – the problem we find in today’s scripture. And it is a serious problem because of how our God views it.

King Rehoboam was not a good king. We need not list his many sins making him such. For our purpose, we simply need to focus on what caused all his sins and will do the same to us – spiritual neglect. God said of this ungodly king, “And he did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.” Go back and ponder each word God says of King Rehoboam. The Lord God states that a heart not set on seeking Him, or spiritually neglecting Him, is evil. That, my friends, is a sobering thought. When we choose to let the busyness of life put seeking God on the back burner of life, the Lord says, “This is evil.” It is very easy to say, “I will get alone with my Bible and prayer to seek the Lord after I get this done or that done.” It is also very easy to say, “I will have more time once this phase of life is over.” And still yet, it is so easy to let the events and demands of each day become the priority instead of seeking the face of God being the priority. Yes, I am aware of all that is upon us in our daily lives. I, too, live with a full plate, but not one of us are too busy to seek God. When it comes to this spiritual discipline, it is never a time issue, but a heart and desire issue.

We will go a long way in developing spiritual discipline and self-control to seek the Lord when we start looking at our lack of both from His perspective. Let the truth that God calls spiritual neglect of Him “evil” settle into our hearts and minds. It will radically alter our lives when we understand what He thinks about it.

PRAYER: “Father, forgive me for allowing the things of the world to take me from time in Your Word.”

QUOTE: “Spiritual neglect is the easiest of sins to commit. It requires no effort and offers no resistance to us.”

PRAYER: “Father, help me to always trust Your ways even when I don’t understand Your ways.”

QUOTE: “Obeying God does not require perfect understanding just child-like faith and action.”