STAGNATION

To be stagnant means to be or become stale, sluggish, dull or foul from standing, and to stop developing, growing, progressing or advancing. We have all been in seasons of life when we were stagnant, staying in the same place, neither growing nor developing. It can be a deeply unsettling experience both in personal lives and within communities. To be stagnant means to be or become stale, sluggish, dull or foul from standing, and to stop developing, growing, progressing or advancing. Stagnation does not necessarily mean being static. One can be spending time and energy but without making progress. There is activity without productivity.

To be spiritually stagnant is to disconnect from God. The love for the things of God has stagnated. The Bible describes stagnation as dullness spiritually so that one is not alert to what God is doing. Movement is useless unless it is in the direction of one’s goals or destiny.

Stagnation does not end until something is done about it. All forces of stagnation are destiny destroyers (John 10:10). "It will come about at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish those who are stagnant in spirit, who say in their hearts, 'The Lord will not do good or evil" (Zephaniah 1:12). To be stagnant in spirit means to go through the daily grind of life thoughtlessly while being indifferent to seeking God. We fail to connect with God. We are not alert to what God is doing around us. Even worse, we don’t care. We shut God out of our lives. We start living as if God is irrelevant to what is happening in the world.