On this day, March 3, in the year 1863 a resolution was adopted proclaiming a National Day of Prayer and Fasting. The United States of America continues to recognize this resolution on the first Thursday of May each year.

I was reading the speech that President Lincoln gave on March 30th following the signing of the resolution. It is a fascinating read and can be found in its entirety at this link.  This was a President who recognized the need to honor the God in whom all things have been created.

There is a quote that stands out as particularly intriguing to me:

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. – President Abraham Lincoln

President Lincoln recognized that we can get to a point in life where self-sufficiency overrides our perceived “need” for God.  We find ourselves in a place of complacency.

This does not just happen to those outside of the Church – it happens just as quickly inside the Church. We find our routine. We go to Church on Sunday, serve as an usher, show up once a month for a mid-week service – but outside of that, we can’t seem to find the time to dig into His Word – pray, seek and discover. We might “walk the walk” but where is the fruit?

This post is short and simple: I pray we not be intoxicated with unbroken success, as President Lincoln said. Rather, let us be brought to a place where we are overwhelmed with a desire to know God on a deeper level than we did yesterday.

Let us be sickened by complacency and strive toward change.

Question: How do you overcome complacency?