This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth,
and honoureth me with their lips;
but their heart is far from Me. Matthew 15:8
Sometimes when we hear a negative
and it reminds us of the positive
So there are people that say they honor the Lord and don’t,
otherwise, He would not have written it in His word for all to see
A question might be:
How do I honor Jesus truly, so it’s not fake?
The Laodecian church was chastised by Jesus:
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot:
I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm,
and neither cold nor hot,
I will spue thee out of my mouth. Revelation 3:15-16
He tells them not to be on the fence
Make up your minds
Like Me or don’t like Me
Follow Me or don’t follow Me
He tells them exactly what they can do if they choose Him
They failed God:
Because thou sayest,
I am rich,
and increased with goods,
and have need of nothing;
and knowest not that thou art wretched,
and miserable,
and poor,
and blind,
and naked:
“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire,
that thou mayest be rich;
and white raiment,
that thou mayest be clothed,
and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear;
and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
As many as I love,
I rebuke and chasten:
be zealous therefore, and repent. Revelation 3:17-19
If you think you already know enough about God,
and have God all figured out,
you have lost your first love
Doing things in our own strength
and failing worldly ideas of holiness will get us nowhere
And Jesus said unto him,
No man, having put his hand to the plough,
and looking back,
is fit for the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62
All these things we are not supposed to do
should make it clear what we are supposed to do
Follow Him without looking back
Buy of Him gold tried in the fire
See yourself the way I see You
Open your eyes
Cleanse your garments
I might mention,
it seems none of the things He is telling us to do here
are things we can do on our own
They come from following Him,
being sold out to Him,
and are given to us by the strength of His Holy Spirit
Following Jesus is a different kind of work
It’s not easy
But when you are following Him,
it becomes a quest you must accomplish,
to learn more about Him
We can push Him aside
Have our lives neatly packaged
Have our benefits from being in His kingdom
even if those are a false sense of security
Maybe we have our comforts in this life
and work for them,
spend our time on them
They will never satisfy
Maybe we even attend church
and tithe and measure up well to our perception of what God wants
Are you doing your best with your relationship with God
Keeping Him at the forefront of your heart and mind?
Check in with God
As frequently as you can
Keep that communication clear
Listen often
Obey
Don’t put Jesus on the back burner
Let Him rule and reign in your life
Seek His peace
Make sure things between you and God are good
How can you get your first love back if you’ve lost it?
Ask Him.
It is different for everyone
If you think you have it all together and there is no more to gain,
you may have lost your first love
Indifference
Choosing ungodly over godly
Letting the world dictate your thoughts or feelings
Lusting over money or position or power
Any type of idolatry will eventually turn your heart away from God
The easiest way to think you have it all together
is to think you know enough with no desire to learn more
Considering that what you already know about Him is enough
It is never ever enough
We need to wash ourselves daily in His word
Gather fresh manna
of Himself and His word as often as we feel apart from Him
He is alive and His word is alive,
to guide us,
to teach us,
to allow us the key to commune with Him
and to strengthen us to follow Him
Our walk with God is like always reaching
and never quite making it
We will one day see Him face to face
but until then, let us reach toward that goal
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:14