TODAY IS…

a great day to make sure that it doesn’t happen to you.

“Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips.”  Joel 1:5 NIV

We are all most likely familiar with the expression, “Good things come in small packages.”

Joel’s contribution to the Bible is very small in content, being only three chapters, but it is enormously important in its message. Joel was a prophet who wrote about complacency to the people of Judah, the Southern Kingdom. As is too often the case even today, the people had grown prosperous and had developed a sense of self-sufficiency that displaced their reliance on God, causing them to become complacent where God was concerned.

God had sent a plague of locusts to discipline them, and Joel called upon them all to turn from their sinful ways and go to God and seek His forgiveness before something even worse happened.

It is difficult to pick up a newspaper or watch the news today without coming across a story of someone in a high position of trust and responsibility who has grown arrogant and self-reliant through complacency. Many of these people we read or hear about have claimed a relationship with God, but that relationship did little to protect them when their self-sufficiency caused them to cross the line and violate the public trust.

The reason for this is not complicated and is one which the Bible has pointed out repeatedly for those who take time to absorb the message. Quite simply, people become complacent. When complacency settles into our lives and displaces our reliance upon God, our humble thanks to God, and our constant seeking of God’s approval, we become weak, and we become willing.

Weak and susceptible to the temptations of the world, and willing to set aside our relationship with God in favor of these things.

No matter how high in life a person rises, if the climb to that height was not done in accordance with God’s will and in the light of God’s approval there will be a price to pay. It may not be today, and it may not be tomorrow, but it would be wise to heed Joel’s advice and turn back to God and ask for forgiveness before the price must be paid.

Joel’s short book ends on a high note as he reassured his people of God’s readiness to forgive them.

He tells them God says, “I will pardon My people’s crimes, which I have not yet pardoned; and I, the Lord, will make My home in Jerusalem with My people.” (Joel 3:21 NLT).

Make sure that each day is spent on guard against complacency, so the effects of it never happen to you.

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson