My lack of writing began with my lack of witnessing. I’m not sure when it began, but my burden for the lost “disappeared” as I decided that I should be studying more, or just “do good deeds” for people and other such nonsense that seems to creep into our lives each and every time we seem to be doing so well in our walk with the Lord. What really happened was that I allowed my fear of what others would think to win. Oddly enough, I then began lying to myself. I began to tell myself that I didn’t need to witness. I began to tell myself that passing out tracts, witnessing to strangers, and speaking to friends about eternal things was something that I could do when “I felt the Holy Spirit leading me.” That feeling never came.

The stupidity of my mistake led me quickly into spiritual apathy a few weeks before Christmas. Many factors played into this apathy. In contrast, many other factors changed my apathy as the Holy Spirit did not allow me to sleep knowing many of the sins upon my heart that were unconfessed. That was changed in an instant, and I immediately returned to the Word of God, a returned to digging deeper and growing in Christ. Yet still my witnessing did not improve, and I believe that is what did not allow me to “soar” over the top of that hill of apathy. I remained somewhat apathetic about witnessing.

A few days later I was at work, and a young lady from college, whom I knew to be a Christian, had returned home and was working for a few days over the Christmas break. She hadn’t been at work in months, yet in those few hours that she was there the entire staff was speaking about Christianity, the Bible, the gospel, and about Jesus Christ. I was awestruck. Why was I not doing those things? Why was my work or my church not being shaken by my boldness as I proclaimed my faith? What was different about this college student and myself?

In an instant, I understood where I was and where I needed to be. I saw my fear and I saw my apathy.

“Even though we resolve to live in the world by the convictions God has given us from His Word, and we openly identify ourselves with Christ,” says Jerry Bridges in his book The Pursuit of Holiness, “we still are often subjected to the pollution of unholy surroundings. The lewd pictures everywhere, the obscene jokes told in our presence, and the endless recounting and boasting of immoral activities by those who do them, all serve to drag our minds down into the filth of this world.”

This is so true for so many of us. We have resolved to live by God’s Word, and everyone knows that we are Christians. I remember and still know that most people do not use God’s name in vain around me because they know my belief’s, and they have on numerous occasions apologized for doing so. Yet over time, people seem to forget those things, or just don’t care, and I continue to live in a world full of obscenity and immorality. In our world, there is only one way to survive: the Word of God.

“How can a young man keep his way pure?” asks David in Psalm 119:9.”By living according to your word.” It is the Word of God that must and will cleanse our minds from the pollution that surrounds us, and that even permeates our minds day in and day out. Sadly, many Christians just allow this pollution and immorality to enter their minds, and do nothing to balance it or rather overcome it with God’s Word. Their mind is filled with refuse, instead of the pure thoughts of a regenerated believer. We must be living according to God’s Word, day in and day out, and the way we do that is by reading it.

Some wonderful Scripture to meditate on during those times we are forced to listen to impurity is Proverbs 27:20 and Ephesians 5:4. “Hell and destruction are never full,” says Proverbs, “so the eyes of man are never satisfied.” How terribly true. “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving,” says Paul.

Still, this is not the end-all. Our eyes must be transformed into looking at this immoral world as the mission field, full of those who are filling the depths of hell. If the Bible’s descriptions are any indication, you would not wish your worst enemy to spend a moment there. Unfortunately, so many of us have lied to ourselves, or have allowed fear to overcome us and are allowing this world to seep into our thinking, when we should be reading and preaching the Word of God. We must be witnesses, we must be reaching out to this world so desperate from salvation from the punishment that they deserve from a holy and righteous God. Why has our fire been lost? Why have our eyes not been transformed?

Perhaps you have sunk into spiritual apathy. I pray today that you will confess your sins, repent, and return to the Word of God, letting it penetrate you, soak you, envelop your life so that it overflows out of you. Allow God’s Word, his gospel, to be spread through you with no fear. Fear not, says the Lord. If God is for us, who can be against us? No one. For those who have been redeemed by the blood of the perfect Lamb, we must not sink into spiritual apathy, but must rise to holiness as regenerated believers.

The Simple (vs. Complex) Steps To Annihilating Apathy
1. Read God’s Word
2. Memorize and Meditate on God’s Word.
3. Share God’s Word with all those around you.