First Love Maintained
Even when things don’t go as planned from my perspective, Father, I leave them in Your hands. Your will will be accomplished regardless of my circumstances. What a mighty God I serve!
Revelation 2:2-5 (<<click green)
Time takes its toll. In life, we can become passionate about many things but over time passion begins to wane. This can be especially true in our relationships with God and others.
Love is not something that maintains its fervor. We must continue to stoke its fire. When we first fall in love, it is easily fueled, but after several years of marriage we have to work at it – and it is well worth the effort! But it is most definitely not self-perpetuating.
The same is true in our relationship with God. When we first accept Christ as our Savior excitement is high. Our gratitude is overflowing. But as time goes by it is easy to forget the intensity of our first love, we must work at it – it has to be maintained.
In this passage, Lord, You commend the Ephesian for sticking to their guns but along the way, they lost something vital – LOVE! Rules and regulations are all well and good – and yes they are vital – but without love in the mix, it takes a nasty turn.
Lord, help me to keep my first love aflame. May I continue to love You with all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength. My love for You must be my motivator – when I do so my love for others will follow. Amen.
June 26th, Mon, 6:46 am
Cattails
Father, I am still in awe from watching the simple beauty of Your creation last night at supper. I witnessed no majestic waterfall or arching rainbow but as I sat in my own home I was mesmerized by the swaying of the cattails in the drainage ditch across the road. It doesn’t sound very picturesque but they were beautiful as the wind rushed through them – waves of green with their dark brown, sausage like flowers undulating with each gust.
Hundreds each day zoom by with nary a glance. It’s a drainage ditch by one of the thousands of fields running alongside an ordinary stretch of state highway – another unobtrusive parcel of land among many. It may seem that it is not worthy of being noticed but You, Lord, You notice and You fill it with the beauty of Your creation.
At times we all feel that we are just another drainage ditch amongst thousands. In our mind’s eye, we are ordinary, we are plain, our lives are inconsequential. We may be similar to the other ditches across our world but regardless of how we feel…we are unique. We are not mundane. Because of Your touch, we are filled with beauty. Others may rush by and not notice but beauty ignored is no less beautiful.
Lord, may I not forget how much I am valued in Your eyes. I am unique; I am beautiful because of You. and may I not zoom past others – ignoring who they are in Your sight. May I see the beauty You have bestowed upon them as well. Amen.
June 25th, Sun, 6:32 am
In His Right Hand
Thank You, Father, for the good night’s sleep! Getting up before 3:00 am yesterday was a challenge but it is all good. May I find Your blessings in this day, Father. I know they are there in abundance; I just want to find them so I can give You all the praise!
Revelation 2:1 (<<click green)
“Write this letter to the [messenger] of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands…”
I realize that this was already stated in 1:16 and 20 and that You explained that the stars represent the messengers to the churches. But as I started to read chapter 2 this morning, the statement that the “stars” are in Your “right hand” leaped out at me.
I know (and verified with Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology) that the words “right” and “hand” both represent “the ownership, power, or control that its possessor…exercises” and “a place of salvation, refuge, and protection.” …and to think, as the “seven stars” are, we are in Your right hand!
Lord, I acknowledge the ownership, power, and control over me because I fully realize the salvation, refuge, and protection that is fully extended to me. It is humbling (to say the least!) that the Almighty Creator God has me in the hollow of His hand. But I know that You love me. You created me along with everything else in all the universes yet I am important to You. Once again Ephesians 1:4,
“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.”
We find ourselves in the hollow of Your hand but we are also the apple of Your eye. (Psalm 17:8)
Lord, may I hold You in the utmost of reverence but may Your power and love find expression through my life as well. Amen.
June 22nd, Thurs, 8:08 am
Staying the Course
I ask You, Father, to help me as we come together. I am weary. I am coming to the end of a special period of time with family. I am grateful the time we’ve had but it also makes me sad as well in that our time is coming to an end. Be with me, Father.
Revelation 1:19-20 (<<click green)
The terminology here, Lord, refers to “messengers” and is quite often translated as “angels” but in this setting seems not to lend itself to heavenly beings but to earthly messengers.
I must pointedly ask myself, who would an earthly messenger of a church be? In my life who is appointed to deliver Your message to Your Church? Me…it’s me…and many other pastors such as myself. As my study Bible puts it, I am “accountable to God for the churches [I] represent.”
I am responsible, under Your direction, to steer the church along the course we must go…no if’s and’s or but’s. Sometimes it is a fairly easy course. At other times it can be difficult – full of pitfalls and attempts to turn the church off its intended path.
As I ready myself to move forward into Your words for the seven churches, I must let Your words speak to me, as well. You call me to listen to what You would have me hear. It is my responsibility as Your messenger to not only obey Your word for me but to also obey Your word for Your church.
I would pray for Your wisdom in both areas. May I follow Your command of, “Don’t be afraid!” in regards to the churches You have given me and my own life as well. Amen.
June 20th, Tues, 9:47 pm
He Holds the Keys!
Father, it has been as very full, last couple of days but I know that I need to sit down and have some time with You. May I hear what You have for me through Your word. Amen.
Revelation 1:17-18 (<<click green)
Every time I read Your word, Lord, I am prepared to read several verses but quite often something in a short passage makes me pause…and I paused on verses 17 & 18.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last. I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.
As You showed me last I read, You were not what John (or I) expected and all of that might and power literally knocked him out! But as You had said before “Don’t be afraid!” (Matthew 14:22-33) As it was then it is now with John – You’ve got absolutely everything under control!
And I just can’t get it out of my head – I picture You bursting with joy! You are excited and You just can’t wait to get the words out to John. You’ve got absolutely everything under control! You always have but we are slow learners. People die all around us, one nightly news program and we hear way more about death than we ever wanted to hear. In our own circles, loved ones succumb to death. We can’t avoid it. It is inevitable. You died as well…but it was by no means the end!
You said, “I died, but look – I am alive forever and ever!” And here’s the kicker for us, “And I hold the keys of death and the grave.” You conquered death and the grave and because You did, we too can! We have nothing to fear! You’ve got absolutely everything under control! Nothing is outside of the all-encompassing statement!
And if we are Your children and have placed our faith in You, then You joyously extend to us the spoils of Your victory – victory over death and the grave! Thank You, Lord. May we live without fear for victory is found in You!
June 19th, Mon, 11:09 pm