Good morning. I would like to begin our thought on this Lord’s Day with a prayer:
Lord, please help me to trust you more as I face new challenges and obstacles in my life. Please Lord, give me strength to live life as you intended and to fulfill your purposes for me while I am on this earth. Help me to live in your light and to feel the blessings that you richly and lovingly share with me day by day.
For this prayer to have meaning I know that I will need to lift my heart to God in a more consistently powerful way. There are days when good intentions leave the Christian person short of the mark. We need to “light the fires” within and allow the Holy Spirit to guide and encourage us to greater function as we live for Him who died for us.
Jesus, as He spoke to John in heaven, had this to say to the church in Laodicea: I know what you have done; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other! But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:15-16
Whether those words are considered collectively as a church body or personally in our daily Christian walk, they present a troubling truth. It is so easy to slide into a lukewarm state. This can be true in our workplace, of our family life, and certainly in our spiritual life. It is easy to relax, do the things that need to be done, feel that we are functioning as well or better than most of the people around us, and consider it good enough. We all know that the lukewarm approach eventually will lead us to a place of brokenness. Seemingly without warning lukewarm living falls apart and we find that which we hold dear slipping away.
The answer is to be aware of the problem and to take care that it doesn’t continue. Every job, every marriage, every church, and every Christian can find renewal and blessing when those involved become determined to “turn up the heat”.
The words of Jesus to the churches of Asia Minor recorded in Revelation 2-3 Share many insights as commands, but this issue of becoming “lukewarm” seems to be a common problem. Jesus says to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:4-5 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the things you did at first.
Perhaps it is time to “turn up the heat” in some of the more important areas of life. Let’s begin today in worship. Allow the feelings of being close to God and Christ Jesus in worship to inspire and encourage you to let go of anything that restrains, and to give praise with all our heart.
Vern