By McKenzie May

It’s so easy to fall into the trap of Christian routine. Hitting a rhythm of church on Sundays, Bible study Wednesday nights, and small group outings once a month can make you feel like you’re doing the whole “Christian thing” right, without ever considering why we do anything in the first place- a personal and intentional relationship with Jesus.

Here are 3 practical ways to combat complacency:

• SEEK KNOWLEDGE

The way that I initially found most helpful in my journey to claiming my faith as my own was to actively seek the answers to questions that had been sitting at the back of my mind for years.

Matthew 7:7 encourages us to ask, seek, and knock on the door for Truth!

Don’t just be passive recipients of truth every Sunday. Be an active seeker of Truth. Read a book (I recommend I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be an Atheist), surf the web (Stand to Reason is full of resources), or grab coffee with your pastor or mentor.

• DON’T GET COMFORTABLE

Proverbs 1:32 says “the complacency of fools will destroy them.” If you are complacent in your faith, it will weaken. You need to feed your faith. Complacency in your faith can be anything from a lack of conviction in sin to not spreading the Gospel in a situation that needs it.

Ignoring these calls are not honoring the love that we have been shown by our Savior.

The purpose of our time here on Earth is to love the Lord with all of our hearts, minds, and souls, and to love our neighbors. But what about when loving your neighbors gets uncomfortable? God calls us as His children to be bold, and we can’t share His light with the world if we are complacent.

How can you step outside your comfortable routine and be an ambassador for Christ this week?

• PRACTICE DISCIPLINE

If we devoted the same amount of time talking to our Creator that we did scrolling through social media accounts, how different would our relationships with Christ be?

Experts agree that it takes 21 days to make a habit. I challenge you to 21 days of consistent, purposeful time in prayer and in your Bible for at least an hour a day.

It sounds daunting, but once you start falling deeper and deeper in love with Jesus, it’s difficult to even go one day without giving it up to Him. You will begin to feel His presence wherever you go and see the ways He is working all around you.

God calls us to more than just going through the motions; He calls us to a life of chasing after Him!

Matthew West’s song “The Motions” says, “I don’t want to go through the motions. I don’t want to go one more day without Your all-consuming passion inside of me. I don’t want to spend my whole life asking, ‘What if I had given everything instead of going through the motions?’”