John was instructed to write to the church in Ephesus:
I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men... You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. -Revelation 2:2a, 3-4
I am assuming this is the same church of Ephesus Paul wrote to when he said, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8) If so, it sounds like this is a church that is pretty good about doing things for God. They go to church, they sing songs, they tithe, they pray, read their Bible, and do all the things a good Christian should do. But the passion is gone. Paul also said to the Ephesians, "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you..." (from Eph. 1:18). They have forgotten about the hope of Christ, the richness of His glory, the depth of His love, the incomparable power of His strength.
And so have I.
Last night as I, for the first time in too long, finally felt a connection with God's Word, this morning at church it happened again as I was reminded of Martha:
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." -Luke 10:38-42
This sounds all too familiar as well.
For me, it is so much easier to stay busy serving the Lord than to actually sit at His feet and listen to Him. That's what happened to me this past year. Of course, sometimes it wasn't really serving God, it was serving myself, but thinking that it was serving God. Did God require of me to stay up that late to study for that test? Was I doing that to glorify Him, or me? Not that there's anything wrong with staying up late for a test, but I think I have done a pretty good job of deceiving myself that what I do is for God when I'm doing it for myself.
But there are also the things I do seem to do out of my love for God, like doing my best to do the right thing morally. But really, after a while, when I am neglecting to dwell on God's Word, how much is about love, versus plain old habit?
I wish I had some answers. But I don't.
Sorry this is not a neat and tidy entry, but I have no way to wrap this up or any application. I just needed to write out my thoughts.
4 comments:
Yeah, I think the ONLY thing I would have done differently about the entire wedding process was registering at Belk instead of Kohl's. Kohl's is nice, but Belk had a much larger selection.
i'm totally butting in on your "where to register" convo with anna, but i would also consider macy's just because it's a little cheaper (seemingly) than belk and they're everywhere!!
We thought they did, but they don't.
What were you looking for there?
Those aren't bad ideas, but I wouldn't think too much about your kitchen appliances since many places (whether or not you're buying) will already come with a fridge. When my brother bought their first house, the sellers left them the fridge and the stove. It's hard, but just be patient and see what you've got when you actually get there.
Btw, I highly recommend the Hoover Wind Tunnel vacuum from BBB. We didn't register for it but were able to buy it with the money we got from returned items. It's designed exactly like a Dyson, but it's a lot cheaper.
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