Lukewarmness...

kelly1

Hello all,

just wondering how many Christians here are afflicted with lukewarnness?

It's certainly something that I'm often guilty of. I'm often lax when it comes to doing God's will, putting personal pleasure before prayer e.g. going to the pub when I would be better off praying, and saying to myself, "ah God will understand"!. Another example would be commiting "little" habitual sins and again putting my will before God's. But again and again God calls me to perfection and it's a hard struggle to leave the "old man" behind and "put on the new". It must be lack of faith. Maybe I don't trust that God will give me true joy if I completely renounce the world for His will. I do love Jesus and prayer and reading scripture and other holy works but sometimes I find reluctance within me and I give in too easily to laxity/tepidity. Our Lord obviously takes a very dim view of lukewarmness:

Rev 3:14 And to the angel of the church of Laodicea, write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, who is the beginning of the creation of God: 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. 16 But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.

What prompted me to begin this thread was a chapter from a book I came across on Google by Francis Fernandez. I think I'll be putting this on top of my buy-list! Looks like a very good read.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ceMYdWhJbIcC&pg=PA25&dq=%22francis+fernandez%22+conversation&sig=bS9ByxNLgASnPlsJQw_XtQsaFi0#PPA15,M1

Any thoughts? Does have anyone else have a tendency to lukewarmness?

God bless,
Noel.

TravelJunkie

I don't think what you're describing is lukewarmness as mentioned in Rev.

We all have slow periods... don't condemn yourself for it - (think of the hymn - there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!)

Look into finding out about entering 'Gods Rest'

About the lukewarmness, i think this might pertain to churches that have become indifferent about their spirituality, outreach, testimony, etc.

Just my thoughts.

BrianCalgary

Although the passage is talking about what a church body does I see and understand exactly what you mean. it is something that we all struggle with. Paul himself talked about the thron in his side.

We all have it, a weakness that Satan wants to use and to try and tempt us with.

It is rough, but our salvation is secure because of our hearts desire to serve Him.

Soul Winner

I think the term "lukewarm" in this context is attitudinal. Are we with the Lord? ("with" in the context of "I'm 'with' you all the way on that” as apposed to being merely 'with' somebody in the same room) or are we against Him? He'd rather we were one or the other but if we are merely "lukewarm" then He spews us out of His mouth. This tells me that He hates "lukewarm" Christians more than atheists. Curious? So atheists can take comfort in the fact that God can deal with their against-ness to Him easier than the “lukewarmness” of some Christians.

Not sure if it relates to personal feeling though. We are all sinners hence the reason He came and died on our behalf so it would be a bit stupid to hold our sinful natures against us if He died in order to cover our sins. So with that in place one can only assume that it has to do with our attitude towards Him. Are we deadly serious for Him or deadly serious against Him? Or just somewhere in between? Like where the Israelites were in between Egypt (type of bondage to sin) and Canaan (type of the life of faith i.e. claiming God's promises) which was the wilderness i.e. lost.

Fanny Cradock

For what it is worth, it happens to everybody, Kelly.

I slip between piety and hypocrisy with ease