Day 7: An offer for victory
I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked… (Revelation 3:15-17).
Loving Lord and merciful God, You are the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). You are the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Ruler of God's creation (Revelation 3:14). You have demonstrated Your incredible love by laying down Your life for us (John 15:13). And You reprove and correct those You love (Revelation 3:19).
You understand our desperate need for reproof and correction from a God whose thoughts and ways are immeasurably higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8-9). For our own assessments are skewed, our scales dishonest, and our weights false (Micah 6:11).
The church in Laodicea luxuriated in misplaced contentment and false security, imagining itself to be rich, self-sufficient, sleek, chic, clever and wise. But Your appraisal declared this church Tekel — weighed in the balance and found wanting (Daniel 5:27 - NKJV). Your wise, just, fair, and accurate measures revealed it to be wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
Yet, Your startling reproof, Your straightforward honesty, and Your unsparing correction were a loving call to repentance — an offer for Your cleansing power and ultimate victory:
I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see… To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with Me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with My Father on His throne (Revelation 3:18,21).
O Holy God, Your timeless warning, Your call to repentance, and Your invitation reach across the ages to Your church today: Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with Me (Revelation 3:20).
Jesus, wake us up from slumber, from complacency, from misplaced contentment, from false security. Stir in us the urgency communicated by the apostle Paul to the Thessalonian believers, So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober (1 Thessalonians 5:6).
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