Three Strikes Leave You Out
2 Kings 13:17-19:
And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The arrow of the LORD’s deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them.
And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and stayed.
And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice.
Good can be the enemy of best.
I am concerned that many Christians are like King Joash in the passage above. They have an opportunity to grow and do mighty exploits, but they get content with mediocre Christian living and they just stop where they’re comfortable. They could have total victory but they settle for partial victory.
We had someone come occasionally to our services from another church where the teaching wasn’t particularly great. She said, “I come here when I want to get fed.” It seemed that she didn’t want to get fed very often! But there are many like her. They want to be with their friends, who apparently like crummy teaching too and don’t care either if they get “fed” regularly. You become like those with whom you associate, whether you believe that or not. (For starters, see 1 Corinthians 15:33, Proverbs 22:24-25 and Proverbs 13:20.) If you hang around unbelief, unbelief will start hanging around you! I’ve seen this happen to people who go to “nice” churches with “nice” people who don’t exercise any faith to be healed. Let this go on a while and you can tell they’ve changed just by listening to words coming out of their mouths that make a Bible-believing Christian cringe.
The sad part is what could have been for such people. They could have flowed in the power of God and rocked the world around them. They might have displayed the resurrection with infallible proofs and modeled what Jesus is really like, which is God’s plan for every believer (Romans 8:29). Instead, they muddled through life like the world. The problem came when a severe illness struck and they fired blanks at the devil because they kept hearing about healing not always being God’s will for all. When it was time to believe God, they realized too late that they’d become rusty in that area.
We all have flesh, so we all have to guard against this mentality, which has its root in “Christian consumerism.” (I realize that this term is actually an oxymoron.) Our focus should not be on “what I get out of church” but rather on being trained to minister to others more effectively. “If I am happy, everything is fine” is the attitude of a selfish pig, not the attitude of a true follower of Jesus Christ who lays his life down for others even if that means inconvenience at times. There are plenty of other people who need help because things are NOT fine for them right now.
Let us beware that we not become like the self-centered people “at ease in Zion” described below:
Amos 6:1,4-6:
Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!
…
That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall;
That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David;
That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
Please understand that there is nothing wrong with prosperity if is accompanied with godliness. God is magnified in your prosperity (Psalm 35:27) and He wants you to prosper (3 John 2). The punishment that bought you prosperity, among other things, was upon Jesus (Isaiah 53:5). (The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, includes the notion of prosperity and it is so translated in Psalm 35:27 above.) The problem is when it doesn’t bother you at all that others are afflicted because all you care about is yourself.
It is my personal conviction that the biggest tragedies in the Body of Christ are not the things Christians are doing but rather the things they are NOT doing because they’ve settled for humdrum, comfortable lives.
Some uncomfortable people need to be comforted, but many “comfortable” Christians need to have a fire lit under them to pursue the kingdom of God more than their own comfort. We only get one shot at this, so let’s make it count! If you’ve been selfish, repent, and find out what real life is about when you start deliberately blessing other people. Don’t let a “three strikes” attitude leave you out of God’s best!