Are you a follower of Jesus? Do you love Jesus? Really? How much time do you spend with HIM?
I remember when Diane and I first met, we both were altering our schedules to have chance encounters with the other...it was so easy to spend hour after hour talking. 25 years later it's not so easy but we both still work to find time to talk...3 young children, life, ministry and stuff..."life comes at you fast." However, if I made no effort, zero effort to talk to her to communicate in anyway but would tell her that I love her in passing do you think that she would believe me? NO!
So on Sunday morning you and I sing sweet songs to and about Jesus, but I have to wonder how many times Jesus would look at me and say...“Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me (Mark 7:6). An easy question to ask is what are you thinking about during the worship service? What are you thinking about? If you are not thinking about HIM you are not worshiping...you are worshiping in vain!
Do you remember what Jesus said in Rev 2:4-5 when HE was rebuking the churches...Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5 Remember the height from which 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.
If you have never felt toward Jesus like you did when you were dating your spouse...the good stuff...you could not wait to be with them, you could talk for hours, an intense sweetness and intimacy in the relationship...if you have never experienced that with Jesus then you probably, PROBABLY, are not saved...you may not really know HIM and it is very likely that you are not known by HIM!
If you have felt that way, but it's just not the same now...then in Rev 2:4-5 HE is talking to you and HE is talking to me! You have forsaken your first love...remember, remember...do the things that you did when you first met Jesus, remember from where you have fallen, repent, and do the things you did at first!
All that to point to Paul's last words in Ephesians...in Eph 6:24 Paul writes, "Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love." As I read that I was blessed and then...I wondered what does Paul want to happen to those that do not love Jesus with an undying love? Then I remembered his answer in 1 Co 16:21-22, I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. 22 If anyone does not love the Lord—a curse be on him. Come, O Lord!
Paul...like a few friends of mine are blessed with the spiritual gift of frankness:)
What do you think about the most? What is it that gets the best of your time, energy, talents, money? Be careful if it is not Jesus...those are likely to be idols in your life.
Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Father in heaven,
Create in me a clean heart, Holy Spirit of God grant me an undivided heart for YOUR glory and my joy in YOU! Finish the good work YOU began!
love,
m