Indifference: December 12, 2012

TODAYS WORD FOR WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 12, 2012.

INDIFFERENCE

DEFINITION:

Feeling no interest or concern; apathetic, not caring.

SCRIPTURE:

Those who have turned back from following the Lord, and have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him. Zephaniah 1:6.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

This verse in Zephaniah gives us an excellent definition of spiritual indifference. There are many people today that call themselves “Believers” and really have turned back from the Lord. They never seek the Lord through prayer or the reading of the Bible. And when you watch their daily living there is no indication of the person walking with God.

In Mark 14: 32-41 we read about Jesus going into the garden of Gethsemane to pray the night before He was betrayed and arrested. He told the disciples that were with Him to “sit here while I pray.” Jesus was agonizing over the terrible suffering He would endure and needed to spend time alone with His Father in prayer.

When He returned to where He had left the disciples, they were sound asleep. The disciples in this situation showed INDIFFERENCE. Jesus asked the disciples “could you not watch for one hour?” You would think that would be a “wake up call” for the disciples but it was not. Jesus went away again to pray and returned and found the disciples asleep.  The scripture tells us that Jesus went a third time and came back and they were asleep again.  Jesus responded after the third time “THIS IS ENOUGH.” In Jesus’ darkest hour, His disciples where not there for Him. They were indifferent to His needs.

Another example of indifference that we can learn from is the story of Jonah. When Jonah was running from God and in the storm at sea, as recorded in Jonah 1:4-9, the crew was afraid and everyone was working hard to save the ship. But Jonah showed indifference, as it was none of his concern,  and went down to the lowest part of the ship and went fast to sleep.

Jonah was a prophet of God and should have been praying for God’s protection from the start. The crew had to wake him up and ask him to help by praying. To Jonah’s credit he admitted that he was the cause of the distress that they were in because he had disobeyed God. He told them to throw him overboard to calm the storm. They did and God calmed the storm and saved Jonah by having him swallowed by a whale.

In many ways today may be called the “Age of Indifference.” Historian Arnold Toynbee has found that nineteen of twenty-one civilizations have died from within and not from outside conquest. Another historian, Dr. Lawrence Gould said that he did not believe that our greatest threat is from bombs and missiles but from our people not caring --- showing indifference.

Edmund Burke said in 1795: “Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference.” If that was true in 1795 it is certainly truer today.

The problem with indifference or an “I just do not care” attitude is that it leads to inaction. Many people that call themselves Christians are indifferent Christians. Just as Jesus told the disciples and the ship crew told Jonah, we need to wake up from our indifference and take action to make a difference in this world.

Take a few moments right now and evaluate your life and where your interests are and ask yourself if you have an inward desire to really serve your Lord. Has indifference set in and do you need to reevaluate your purpose for living? Are you like the “sleeping disciples”? Do you have the “I do not care attitude” like Jonah?

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Isaiah 53:6.

All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, every one, to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

PRAYER:

Help me today not to be indifferent to God’s leading in my life. May my heart be open to what God is telling me to do. Help me to willingly surrender fully and completely to You. Give me the leadership with my family to instill a new interest in their hearts for You.