Morning by Morning, May 27 - Repent and Return to Our First Love
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I'm excited to see where You'll lead me today on our adventure of faith. ...
"I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostle but are not, and have found them to be false. I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of My name, and that you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this is to your credit; you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God" (Revelation 2:2-7).
Lord Jesus, You didn't speak these words to the world. You spoke them to us. You were speaking to all who are called by Your name to "listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches" -- in the generation of John at the time of his Revelation, but also to every generation of believers since that day You first spoke those words.
Thank You for the good things You see in me and my church -- the hard work, the patient endurance, the discernment and desire to seek what is true and reject what is false. But I also thank You for loving us enough to all call out the things in me and my church that are not right, where we've lost our way, where our faithfulness and love for You and Your ways have grown cold. Thank You for the grace that reminds us in love "from what (we) have fallen" and invites us to "repent" and return.
There can be no revival without repentance. There can be no awakening without awareness of where we have fallen. But just as a deeply loved child is both encouraged and corrected by a loving Father, You're always encouraging us by Your Spirit to take a look at our hearts, to test our ways against the plumb line of Your Word, and embrace the invitation of Your grace to fully return to You and "the love (we) had at first."
As we do, we will overcome. As we do, we will conquer the deadening of our consciences and the hardening of our hearts from our compromises with the ways of our world. "To everyone who conquers, (You) will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God." In fact, "in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:37-39). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays
I pray we will hear in our generation what the Spirit is saying to us and our church, that we will repent of all that's not right and return to the Lord and our first love, in Jesus' name. May we overcome and conquer by the power of the grace of God at work within us to be all He created us to be, knowing our identity and fulfilling our destiny in our generation of making disciples of Jesus Christ in all the world. Please join me in that prayer. God bless you, my friend!
Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257
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