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What are the five greatest spiritual dangers we face? I’ve offered what I see as the answer to this question. First, there’s the danger of self-sufficiency, then self-deception, self-esteem, and self-confidence. And we finish with number five,
Self-Satisfied
I’m sure you’ve noticed the common theme in all these dangers: self. We are our own greatest danger in many different ways. And here’s one that is very subtle but very dangerous: being satisfied with yourself.
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” (Ps. 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 believe you’re in great danger of missing so many good things, because, dear friend, the sweetest blessings, the greatest joys are found as you get to know God better and better and pursue him as your 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.
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