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Overcoming Apathy

February 18th, 2009 by Jeremy Sprouse

Apathy can be one of the greatest stumbling blocks to our faith. One of the great problems Israel’s prophets frequently address was apathy and indifference (cf. Isaiah 32:9, Lamentations 1:12, Amos 6:1, Zephaniah 1:6). We often know we need to change, but don’t feel like doing it. We know we should pray, we know we should study our Bibles, we know we should teach our children, we know we should share the gospel, but our favorite TV show is on, but we have to pay the bills, but we are too tired. Besides, tomorrow is just as good a day as today. We make today the day of apathy and tomorrow the day of action, but tomorrow never comes. We need to overcome apathy today.
First, get more information. Apathy can often be rooted in a lack of knowledge and direction. With no clear set goals or no idea how to accomplish them, we lounge around doing nothing. The Bible has plenty of passages giving us missions and goals as Christians (Matthew 28:18-20, 1 Timothy 4:12, Colossians 3:12-17, Philippians 2:5-12, 1 Thessalonians 3:11-2, 4:1-7, and many more). When our goals are clear we can focus on them and overcome apathy in our spiritual lives. The Bible also gives us plenty of motivation (e.g., heaven and hell). If you find yourself with a lack of motivation study more about hell or more about heaven (our Sunday morning Bible class will help you with this).
Second, do something—anything. We often want to start with something grand that we feel will make a big impact which of course will require planning and time. Our motivation, however, lags and nothing becomes of these grand schemes. Unthinkingly, we have allowed ourselves to procrastinate again. The Bible encourages us not to put off action until another time (Colossians 4:5, Ephesians 5:15-16, Galatians 6:10). We only have today to act, we do not know if we will have tomorrow (cf. James 4:13-17). This very moment, decide to do something for Christ: write a note of encouragement and mail it, call a brother or sister and talk with them, read a chapter of Proverbs or a Psalm. It doesn’t have to be much, just do something.
Don’t let apathy get in the way of your relationship with Christ. There is nothing more important than serving Him.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Bulletin Articles.

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