'As many as I love, I rebuked and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent' ( Revelation 3:19).
Laodicea is the last of seven churches in in Asia minor. The members of this church were spiritually lethargic. The Bible said, they saw themselves as rich and increased with goods and of need for nothing. They failed to see their spiritual condition of lukewarmness. The Laodiceans were neither cold or hot in relation to God, they were just lukewarm. Have you ever drink water that is lukewarm? It is nauseating! And that was how Jesus saw them and promised to spit them out of his mouth. However, Jesus implored them to mend their ways and repent. He saw them as wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. But regardless of our condition, Jesus still loves us but will rebuke and discipline his children. Jesus sees our lukewarm attitudes as sickening and give us time to repent. God will use hard trial and even physical afflictions to discipline us when we are erring. God will discipline us for our good, and sometimes the discipline can be very painful, but of course, it does not go on forever. Sometimes it may seem as God has abandoned us due to the level of discipline, but His purpose is to bring us into a closer relationship with him, and make us better people. In this era of the church, it boast its wealth and education, amongst other things, and they feel they are in need of nothing, but is only deceiving themselves and is once again urged to turn to God and away from their spiritual lukewarmness. Jesus is saying to us as believers, that as many as he loves, he rebukes and chasten, we must be zealous and repent. Let us seek to look away from the things we highly esteemed in the world and look to Christ. He knows the plans God has for us all which are for our good and not our evil. Let us purpose in our hearts to change our values, forms, self-sufficient attitudes, lukewarm faith and totally depend upon God.
Have a wonderful day
'But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you' (Matthew 6:33). The Lord is our Provider and knows all that we are in need of before we even ask. We do not need to worry or fret ourselves about what we shall eat or drink. Our Father in heaven will take care of these things we need. We are told by Jesus, 'To seek first the kingdom of God.' What does that mean? It means we should lean on, and trust in the grace of Jesus Christ. We should repent of our sins and have a desire to turn away from it. We should seek to put God first in our praise to Him, in our worship of Him, to put our total trust in Him and to rely on Him rather than ourselves or others. We need to seek Him first in our reassurance and acknowledging who He is and what He can do. We also need to seek God's righteousness by loving our neighbors and feeding the poor and destitute, seek justice for the vulnerable. We should put God's plan and...
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