favor and God’s blessing and God’s bounty day after day, week after week, year after year can begin to court the dangers of erosion. How? Things get to be predictable. They become routine. You grow cynical. And before you know it, you can be lusting while you’re singing a gospel song. Something is wrong if you can sing the words of Jack Hayford’s song, “Majesty,” and your soul isn’t stirring deep within you. Something has drifted far off course if, when you sing “Holy, Holy, Holy,” there isn’t a sense of awe and respect for your heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s what concerned Jesus so much about the first-century Ephesian church— they adopted a perfunctory, ho-hum, business as usual attitude about life and ministry. May I remind you? Jesus has that same concern for us in the twentyfirst century. As I write this, I anticipate two familiar objections. The first goes something like this: “My life has already eroded so badly, there’s no sense in turning back.” Take the time to ponder Paul’s words, written while he was in Ephesus: No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13) You know the tragedy of this verse? Its familiarity. Our acquaintance with it often keeps us from relying on its promise or applying its truths. Nothing is too far gone for the Lord to turn it around. It is never too late to start doing what is right. Erosion may have occurred in your life, but Jesus is there with His arms wide open. He is waiting for you to return to your first love. God longs for you to begin
again with Him. The second objection I anticipate comes in these words: “The erosion you have described, I fully understand . . . but it will never happen to me.” If that represents your outlook, I point you to the verse Paul penned just prior to the one above: “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). I like the way The Living Bible renders this verse: “Oh, I would never behave like that.” It’s the voice of a novice . . . it’s the attitude of the naive . . . and I’ll just shoot straight with you: it stinks of pride. Don’t kid yourself. Look at what happened to the Ephesian believers, and the great apostle Paul had taught them! It can happen to you, my friend. And it can happen to me. If you really see yourself as impervious to erosion, then, ironically, the process of erosion has already started. Let me ask you: have you left your first love? Have you lost the delight of your walk with God? Has it become “business as usual”? Maybe a little boring? You may be busy in the Lord’s work, but you now realize you have lost the awe of it all. The joy of ministry has fled away; now you’re simply maintaining a schedule. I urge you to take a moment right now and examine your motive: why do you choose to say yes so often to those who make requests of you? I’m not referring to decisions between the good and the bad, but to choices between the good and the better. Realize that when you say yes to something, you are saying no to something else. Here’s a new thought: by saying no to the good things, you allow yourself room to say yes to far more important priorities. If you’re not taking God seriously as KKLA Magazine
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