Lukewarm

During a recent morning devotion I read Revelation 3:14-22- the letter to the “lukewarm” church in Laodicea- and was reminded of an experience I had a while ago. One Saturday morning probably a year ago or more a man came to my door and gave me a flyer and an invitation to his church. I told him I already belonged to a church and thanked him for stopping by. He asked me to pray with him and I did. Then he asked me if there was anything I needed. He even offered to help me monetarily. I replied, “No, I’m doing alright.” He seemed a bit taken aback by this response, then recovered himself and bid me goodbye.

In regards to the church at Laodicea, the words that really struck me were these:

17You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.

These words reminded me of my response to the man at my door that Saturday morning. It also reminded me of something other Christians have been saying quite a bit lately: Thanks for keeping me in your prayers! I know that God watches over me although it's not always easy when you're going through trials. Do you have any prayer requests so I can pray for you, too? This is a standard response option on the Christian singles site I recently joined. I’ve discovered the wonderful joy of navigating to the site’s “Prayers” section and praying for the other Christians who post their needs for comfort, healing, and forgiveness, as well as their thankfulness and praises. It is inspiring to see the same people posting day after day; it is an encouragement to post a prayer and see the responses of support come flooding into your mailbox.

After reading about the church in Laodicea, I realized that I rarely respond to the invitation to request prayer from those thanking me for my prayer support. Just like the man who came to my door, I usually think, “Well, I’m doing fine right now. The Lord has blessed me and saved me. How much better can it get?” God has blessed me and I have accepted Jesus as my savior and believe that His life was one of perfect obedience, that He died for my sins on the cross and that He was raised from the dead as the first in a new family of adopted sons and daughters of God. But in these instances where I think that I am doing okay and don’t respond to those offering to pray for me I think I have been overlooking the fact that sanctification is a process; just because I have been saved, doesn’t mean God’s work in my life is done. It doesn’t mean that I can keep God’s commands and live a faithful life on my own.

Part of living a faithful life is facing up to my own imperfections and admitting that I need Jesus to guide me so that I don’t stray from the path of blessing. It is also in realizing that when others offer to pray for me, no matter how well I think things are going, I will always be in a condition of having fallen short of God’s perfect standards. At any given moment, there are so many things I could have these gracious brothers and sisters pray for on my behalf. I must be careful to remember that I am not in Heaven yet, where we will truly be blessed with richness. I am still on my journey of sanctification and have no idea how far I have to go before I reach my destination. Until I get there, I must try to remember that I will always need the prayers of my brothers and sisters in Christ to aid me in keeping to the right path.