Thursday Devotional – Jesus is Worthy of Our Faithful Love (10/31/24)

If Jesus wrote a letter personally to you and to me, what would it say? In what areas would He say you and I were faithful and what weaknesses would He point out?

Here’s what He had John write to the Ephesians.

Revelation 2:1-7  “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. ² I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. ⁵ Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. ⁶ But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

⁷ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Jesus recognized the Ephesian church’s faithful service, faithful doctrine and faithful endurance. They worked hard for Him and were conscientious to uphold Godly standards. However, they had forsaken their faithful love for Him. Maybe they were so focused on their work FOR Jesus, that they forgot to BE with Jesus.

Jesus wants us to faithfully serve Him and uphold His truths, but not at the expense of truly spending time with Him. He desires our love first. He wants a personal relationship with each of His children where we enjoy Him, talk to Him and listen to Him.

Are you and I more focused on serving God than loving and enjoying Him? Often, my answer is yes. Studying this passage really challenged me to take time to be with and enjoy God instead of focusing most of my energy on serving Him. 

What might need to be put off in order to pursue loving God more? Is someone or something else our first love? Or is it God Himself? He loves us so much and desires us to faithfully love and enjoy Him!

Right Here and Now

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.  Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.  Ephesians 3:16-19

As people, we spend a lot of time focusing on what’s ahead.  Some of us get caught up into the past.  Very rarely do we focus on the here and now.  We too often look at our own spiritual growth and development and usually say one of two things.  One, we look to God saying, Lord, please do something for us to understand your will for our lives or remove this barrier that is in front of me.  Those who dwell in the past become depressed because the past represents the old you; the one who sinned and always said or did the wrong thing at the wrong time.  However, there is a select few who get it.  They realize the future is what God holds for them and the past is what God forgave them of.  What matters most is that we are thankful to God in the here and now, and He removed the chains that held you up in the past and liberated you to go forward into the future.

God loves you exactly where you are, and has done everything in your life to put you in position to do great things right now.  If you are like me, you might look at your life and ask what God sees in a sinner like me.  I know I still am subject to sin, but I am far from the person I used to be when Christ saved me.  Through His grace, I am given the opportunity to humbly get back up and learn in my quest to do better.  That is what growth is.  It is messy, painful, and often unwanted.  Paul in today’s verses prays for us to both embrace the transformation that we are undergoing and appreciate it today.  Through it all, we come to find achievement, maturity, and greater understanding of God’s will for our lives.  Your failures through God’s love and grace help shape you.  They do not however define you.  Furthermore if you are too focused on the future as to how you will get better, you may miss on what God is trying to show you right now.  If we know God is all knowing and all powerful and we trust in Him completely, would it make sense that you are right where God wants you right now?  All that has happened occurred because God allowed it to.  Our goal is to embrace the person we are now; flawed but loved by the Almighty God who is the only one who is perfect.

God has put you right where you need to be today.  You may not be where you want to be, and you might not be happy with how you got here.  But today, God is what He has always been in your life; present and with you every step of the way.  So as Paul hopes, let us all experience Christ love in its fullness so that we will realize today that we can do anything!  How can you focus on the here and now more?  What will you do with the strength God has given you?  My prayer is that rather than dwelling on the past or focusing on the future, we pause and embrace the person God has made you right here and now.  Amen and may you have blessed and Happy New Year!

True Grit

Because the Sovereign Lord helps me,
    I will not be disgraced.
Therefore, I have set my face like a stone,
    determined to do his will.
    And I know that I will not be put to shame.
He who gives me justice is near.
    Who will dare to bring charges against me now?
Where are my accusers?
    Let them appear!
See, the Sovereign Lord is on my side!
    Who will declare me guilty?
All my enemies will be destroyed
    like old clothes that have been eaten by moths!  Isaiah 50:7-9

You ever go through a daunting task or situation where at one point you could either fail to overcome or seem too tough?  I had a task like that where it just never seemed to be where I wanted it to be, and the mounting pressure built as the deadline approached.  For a bit, it seemed it would never get done, but I remembered something I had heard at a conference talking about how sometimes you have to use feeling that is hard to define but necessary to just get it done.  Some describe it as toughness, but the word they used was grittiness.  So rather than resign myself to just dealing with my potential failure, I dug my heels in and fought with grittiness never giving in to the voice that it could not be done on time.  Low and behold, I had completed my task when I needed it to be done and ahead of schedule.

Being a servant of God sometimes will require us to fight through some tough situations.  A question was asked in my bible study about when to let go of something.  Is God testing us to be vigilant and ‘gritty’ or does He want us to go another way?  Only through prayer can that be answered, but when it comes to being faithful servants as Ephesians 6:11 would suggest (Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes), we must always stand for Him.  This is what Isaiah conveys in today’s verse.  Because we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior, we have God on our side.  Thus, we should be comfortable embracing this choice.  When times might seem tough and the pressure seems to mount, we must show our own ‘grit’ to stand for God and His will for our lives.

No one said serving God is easy.  Jesus said, “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:14 - NIV)  When you are weary from the struggles in your life and following God feels more like a burden than a blessing, remember to find strength in Him, who can carry you through anything.  Do not give in.  Dig your heels in, and find that something in you that is God inspired and keep fighting.  What challenge are you facing today that needs God’s inspired strength?  What situation can you handle better knowing God has your back?  My prayer is that when challenged with worldly suffering and conflict, we respond with God inspired true grit.  Amen.

Thurs Devo: Letter from Jesus

If Jesus wrote a letter personally to you and to me, what would it say? In what areas would He say you and I were faithful and what weaknesses would He point out?

Here’s what He had John write to the Ephesians.

Revelation 2:1-7       “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. ² I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. ⁵ Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. ⁶ But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

⁷ Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Jesus recognized the Ephesian church’s faithful service, faithful doctrine and faithful endurance. They worked hard for Him and were conscientious to uphold Godly standards. However, they had forsaken their love for Him. Maybe they were so focused on their work FOR Jesus, that they forgot to BE with Jesus.

Jesus wants us to faithfully serve Him and uphold His truths, but not at the expense of truly spending time with Him. He desires our love first. He wants a personal relationship with each of His children where we enjoy Him, talk to Him, listen to Him, etc.

Are you and I more focused on serving God than loving and enjoying Him? Often, my answer is yes. Studying and teaching this passage this week really challenged me to take time to be with and enjoy God instead of focusing most of my energy on serving Him. 

What might need to be put off in order to pursue loving God more? Is someone or something else our first love? Or is it God Himself? He loves us so much and desires us to faithfully love and enjoy Him!

Alice