God has promised to never abandon us. Quite a promise, don’ you think? If God is this good to us, why then do we abandon him? We might think we are fond of God but our everyday choices speak otherwise. Somehow, God is far from our mind when we decide how we spend our days, weeks, years, our life. Yet we are called to follow Christ, not the tv schedule. The cost of soft living can be very high.

On the earth you have lived luxuriously and abandoned yourselves to soft living and led a life of wanton pleasure [self-indulgence, self-gratification]; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. (James 5:5, AMP,*)

The cost of soft living

Why is self-indulgence dangerous? What do you think? Does it matter how luxuriously I live? Why would soft living lead to destruction? Because entertainment-oriented living keeps us focused on idols. If we are self-indulgent, we are not God-centered. And that’s what we are meant to be. Faith is not supposed to be a theory but a way of life.

The more we practice soft living, the less we yearn for spiritual nourishment. Eventually, it leads to destruction. Soon, a life of pleasure is all we want. Too much of a good thing is as dangerous as a little bit of a bad thing. They take our hearts away from the Lord. Hence, we need to be really careful about how we live. Mindless pursuits of entertainment are costly. They keep us from doing God’s will. Indeed, soft living leads to destruction.

Gracious God,
Forgive me my selfishness and tendency for soft living.
I want only you, yet my thoughts whirl around me and mine.
Save me! Create a new heart in me, Lord.
Show me how to live fully in your presence.
Enable me to leave my self-indulgent ways.
Empower me for victorious living in you.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: What do you think? Is soft living bad for Christians?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you embrace God as your source of happiness!

* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses toBiblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.].

This post is refurbished from2017. Photo by Kinson Leung on Unsplash. Linking up today with Dance with Jesus, Five-minute Friday.