Revelation 2:4-5
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 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.
The Lord brought this verse to mind the other day and I had to share. This is a command and call to repentance!!! It tells me it’s not too late and that we can still get back to our first love, Jesus!!!
These are Jesus’ words, and they come on the heels of Him listing all the things they are doing right. He says they work hard, persevere, they don’t tolerate wickedness, and have endured hardships, yet they are still failing! Why is that? I believe it’s because they aren’t doing it out of love and reverence for Christ but out of necessity and to please man. This speaks to me because so often, I check boxes and worry about how I look from the outside, but what really matters is the inside!!! God looks at the heart, and if the heart isn’t all for Jesus, then we’re in trouble!
I encourage you as you go about this day and this week to get back to your first love, Jesus! If you’re a believer, I want you to take a few seconds and think about when you first came to know Christ and the joy, peace, love, and acceptance you felt. Now hold onto that and let everything you do this week flow from that! Don’t let the enemy get in there and distract you from who you are in Christ!!! Repent and Return to your first love; He is waiting with open arms!!! Cling to the King and His mercies!!!
Be encouraging, Be kind, Be bold, Be honest with yourself and the Lord, and most importantly, be like Jesus!!! I love you all, God bless, and glory to God, Jesus, Holy Spirit!!!
Revelation 2:18-20
“To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching, she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.”
As a body of believers, what we tolerate matters! This is Jesus talking to one of the seven churches, and it still applies to us today! It talks about all of the good they are doing. It says they are doing more than they did at first, so that means they are growing. Growing in love and faith, persevering and serving each other, yet they miss it in one crucial area. They tolerate someone or some group of people in the church teaching false doctrine, thus leading people away from Christ and toward the enemy.
The name Jezebel is used here as a type of person. It’s not necessarily a single person here but a group of people willing to trade God in for a counterfeit. In the Old Testament, Jezebel murdered God’s people, forced and enticed them to worship other gods, and led them into all different kinds of evil, sinful acts, thus drawing and driving them away from the Lord and toward the enemy.
I believe Jesus is saying here that we have to be on guard because these people are still very much alive and active in our churches today! He is saying that even to tolerate such a thing is a sin, and as His Bride, we are called to a higher standard! So, to even tolerate or put up with it is a sin on our part, and we will be held accountable. Thankfully, Jesus is patient with us and merciful because He still offers us the chance to repent! Ask the Lord today to search you and reveal to you if you have been tolerating things inside His church that He destroys, and if you have fallen into this trap or are being led away by false doctrine or some perverted teaching. And if so, then He gives you the remedy in the next two verses.
Revelation 2:21-22 - I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely unless they repent of her ways.
Repent and be cleansed. Get off the bed of suffering and fall into the arms of Grace! God bless! I love you all! Glory, Honor, and Praise forever to God Almighty, Jesus Christ the Risen King, and His Holy Spirit!
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