Monday 4th December - Revelation 3

Today’s chapter is Revelation 3

Tom writes:

The thing that is getting me about these letters to the churches is the lavishness of what is to come.  If we overcome - which doesn’t sound too hard when we factor in the awesome power of the Spirit - we will be able to eat from the tree of life, we will not be hurt at all by the second death, we will have authority over all the nations, we will have our name acknowledged before the Father, we will be made pillars in the temple of our God.  Isn’t that just ridiculously remarkable? We will even sit with Jesus on his throne. Isn’t it preposterous?  There isn’t an award ceremony on earth that could get close to giving us anything as incredible as even one of those things.  There cannot be a person with such a mediocre record as mine who is even in the running for such a dazzling array of riches.

And that is the point of Revelation. For a persecuted church, for a struggling church, for a marginalised and disempowered church a “mediocre record of success” can be so discouraging. It can pour cold water on your perseverance when Synagogues of Satan look so powerful and so permanent. And when they push you around and pressure you into compromising your stance it can be so easy to cede ground; to let discouragement make you lukewarm. Sometimes I go that way. I suspect you do too. But then we read Revelation. Then we hear the Word of our God. He will win all the earth. And he wants to win every part of us now. Stand firm. Strengthen what remains. Put salve on your eyes. See beyond the facade of fleeting forces. Buy gold from him. Let his rebuke and his love rework every thought. Don’t look at your mediocrity. Just look at his love. See how great he really is. He will win. He is winning right now in a million hidden ways. And so lean into trust and lean into encounter. Open the door to the knocking King and eat of the food that he wants to share with you. It’s a foretaste of the banquet that we will feast on for endless days.

Question for reflection

What would it look like for you to feast with God right now?