tepid

Opening Prayer: O Lord, my God, protect me from ever having a tepid form of devotion to you.  Guard me from having a lukewarm heart.  Keep me from ever putting my spiritual life on cruise-control.  By your Spirit create a burning desire for you deep in my soul; one that controls and determines the way I live my life.  In the name of Jesus I pray.  Amen.

Scripture: Revelation 3:14-22

Journal: How are you like the church at Laodicea?  What parts of this letter speak to your heart?  What disrupts you?  What challenges you?  What is your spiritual temperature right now?  If God wrote you a letter today, what would it say?

Reflection: The church at Laodicea was tepid. They had allowed their wealth and prosperity to lull them to sleep spiritually.  Or, to use the metaphor the book of Revelation itself uses, they had become lukewarm.  And lukewarm-ness is a trait that God doesn't care for at all.  Come to think of it, nobody cares for it.  Because being lukewarm wreaks of apathy.  It has no backbone to it, no commitment, no passion, and no zeal.  Which is one of the things God asks the church to become—zealous.  The word zealous in the Greek is zēloō, which means "to boil."  God longs for their hearts to boil with love for him.  In other words, God is telling them to turn up the heat of their affection for him; be lukewarm no longer.

     The image of stove comes to mind immediately.  God is saying, "Right now your passion and desire for me is about a four or five (out of ten).  Is that good enough for you?  Because it is not good enough for me.  I didn't create you to be just a four or five— turn up the heat.  I want more for you and I want more from you, don't settle for less."  I think that's why I love this passage.  It is an invitation.  God is inviting me into a deeper, more intimate, more passionate relationship with him.  God wants my inner life to boil with affection and desire for him. 
     The reality is that we all boil inside for something.  There is something in our lives that is getting our passion, that is on the front burner.  It might be work, it might be family, it might be a significant relationship, it might be wealth (like it was for the Laodiceans), or it might even be ministry.  Something is on the front burner of our lives, receiving all of the heat of our passions and desires that only God deserves.  Our challenge is to take the time and space to figure out just what that is, to name it, and to return (repent) him to his rightful place on the front burner of our lives.

     One of the ways we do that is given right in the text; by simply opening the door to him, the One who knocks and knocks.  We must consistently open the door of our hearts and souls, and invite him into our days and our lives, to spend intimate time with us around our inner table, feasting on the Bread of Life.  He will not intrude.  He will wait (and knock) until space has been made and the door has been opened and he has been welcomed in.  May we all hear the knock and open the door each day to make space and time for him.

Prayers

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, turn up the heat of my inner fires for you.  Let my life boil with affection and desire for you and you alone.  Amen.