“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. 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. You
have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown
weary. 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. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the
Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 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.
Greetings, My Beloved!
I hope you had a great Memorial Day holiday, and in turn
a fabulous week! Last Sunday night in our connect group bible study; my husband
brought a word on profane fire. He talked about the offering that Aaron's sons
brought, which in turn brought the death of them. It makes you wonder, what is
my heart like when I bring forth my dutiful worship? Worship is so much more
than a song that we sing on Sunday morning. This morning, during my prayer time,
the Lord showed me how I have crowded Him out of my day because I stay so
focused on getting everything around me done. I think it can be done
inadvertently. I don't think any of us really want to leave God out of our day,
but as we say the token prayer as we are rushing to our next task, are we
really realizing our heart in the matter? Here is a run-down of what my
day can look like - Wake up, "Good Morning," hop in the shower, rush
to get ready, grab a bite to eat as you rush from the door, sit in traffic,
rush in the door to work, rush from one task to the next until it's time to
call it quits (fit lunch in there somewhere), sit in traffic on the way home,
rush to eat dinner, and then veg out on the couch exhausted from all of the
rushing around, go to sleep - wake up, and repeat. I'm sure you all can somehow
relate. It may not look exactly like mine, but you can see how quickly we can
forget about God in any given day. You can even be doing things for God,
volunteering at the church, or really doing a plethora of good works, but is
God truly in it?
I think the church of
Ephesus, really was trying to do the right thing. I don't think they
intentionally forgot about their first love, God. It is so easy to get caught
up in doing things that you just simply forget the intent of it all…especially,
when trials come your way. How much more difficult is it to continue your
rushed routine when you get a wrench thrown in the middle of it all. Perhaps
you or a loved one becomes sick, then how are you going to get everything done?
What if you lose your job, and you wonder where the next meal is coming from,
the worry takes the place of the busyness, and you wonder, “Where is God in all
of this?” The Bible says that the Ephesians persevered and endured through the
hardships. They did great deeds and worked hard. You hear throughout this
scripture how they persevered, and past the tests, yet through it all they
forgot their first love. Have you forgotten your first love?
Come back to the heart
of worship. Fall back in love with God. When I first met my husband, I couldn't
wait to talk to him again. I would think about him all the time, about the next
time we would get to see each other. It was exciting - I wanted to know more
and more about him. Isn't that how we should feel about God. That we can't wait
until our next encounter. Let's encounter God in a new way today. Last week I
spoke about remaining in God's presence. Let us show God how much we love Him
while we are in His presence. After all, He showed us how much He loved us by
sending His only son to die for us that we may gain eternal life, and
spend an eternity with God.
Worship with me!
Blessings!
Christina
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