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Self-Satisfied
I’m sure you’ve noticed the common theme in all these dangers: self. We are our own greatest dangers in many different ways. And here’s one that is very subtle but very dangerous: being satisfied with ourselves.
Are you satisfied with where you are in your walk with God? If so, you’re not likely to grow very much. We need a holy dissatisfaction with where we are so that we will seek and find all that God has for us.
The Psalmist wrote: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1-2). Those are beautiful words that we quote and sing, but do we actually ever pant for God like a thirsty deer?
Now, this doesn’t mean that we live in a state of frustration or lack of peace. No, as A. W. Tozer writes: “O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. . . I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still.”
If your walk with God is at a stalemate and you’ve been satisfied to just get by, I want to tell you you’re in great danger of missing so many good things, because, dear friends, the sweetest blessings, the greatest joys are found as we get to know God better and better and pursue him as our highest ambition and greatest achievement.
So, if you’re in that self-satisfied, mediocre, neither-hot-nor-cold stage, pray that God will stir up in you a hunger and thirst for righteousness so that you are not satisfied with where you are and you push on to discover all that God has for you and wants to do through you before your life is over.
I hope you’ll remember these five great dangers: Self-sufficiency, self-deception, self-esteem, self-confidence and self-satisfaction.