Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

When What We Think Is Not Reality

Revelation 3:15-21 – “ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

THEME OF THE DAY: WHEN WHAT WE THINK IS NOT REALITY. Today’s scripture demands a pause and a pondering. We likely are familiar with the Lord’s interaction with the church at Laodicea. As we read His letter to them, He is bringing the most serious of spiritual charges against them; a lukewarm heart. Such a heart is defined as a spirit of indifference toward Him and spiritual things. The seriousness and subtlety of this condition is one doesn’t have to be living in outward gross sin to be in it. The lukewarm Christian may be faithful Sunday after Sunday to church. He or she may even read the Bible, pray over meals, give to the poor and serve in some capacity in the church. What will be noticeable in the lukewarm Christian who is doing all these “Christian things” is a lack of joy and excitement in them. Their life will be like this. Sunday is not looked upon, even starting on Friday, with eager anticipation and expectation. The thought to get alone with God with His people for an hour of prayer seems like a chore and is never sought. And the lukewarm Christian would rather invest free time in worldly activities and pleasures than unhurried time in the scriptures seeking the face of the Lord. Basically, a lukewarm Christian looks really good on the outside, but is walking in an inward state of “spiritual ho hum” of just Christian routines.

As bad as this indictment given by Jesus is, something else jumps out of this scripture we must heed. After Jesus diagnoses the spiritual condition of the lukewarm Christian, He says, “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” What is He saying to us? Get ready. This is serious. We may summarize our Lord with this statement, “You think you are spiritually well-off, in a good condition before me, living the routines of life and believe all is well between us when the exact opposite is true.” Does that not bring spiritual chills to the heart to think we are okay spiritually when we are not? The greatest form of deception is self-deception. James writes, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like” (James 1:22-24). The only safe way to evaluate our spiritual condition before the Lord is by His Word; not by what we do or don’t do, where we go, where we don’t go, who we associate with and who we don’t. Those criteria are not for spiritual health. They are what would measure a religious person, but not a born-again Christian. We evaluate ourselves through the mirror of scripture. We may rightly discern just where we are spiritually by these three spiritual tests; “Are we hungering and thirsting for God?”, “Are we conforming more and more into His image?”, and “Is obedience to His commands a deepening delight and practice in our lives?” Those are the spiritual tests to determine our spiritual health and prevent self-deception.

Yes, deception is everywhere in the world because a deceptive devil is on the loose. However, be on guard against the highest form of deception, self-deception. Let’s strive to ensure our walk with the Lord is healthy because we have evaluated it through the criteria found in His Word, not through our own understanding and conduct.

PRAYER: “Father, protect me from the ease of deceiving myself in my understanding of my spiritual condition”

QUOTE: “The only safe place to evaluate our spiritual condition is the Bible through prayer”