The Promise of God

I often hear people talk about the promise of God in the church today. They talk about claiming the promises, taking assurity from the promises, and celebrating the promises. However, I am not sure that we have not become like the Israelites of old. We often seek to claim the positive promises of God without condition and we seek to ignore the negative promises of God that we are much more likely to receive. One of the promises of God that I rarely hear anyone talk about is God's promise in Revelation 3:15-16. God promises the church in Laodicea that because they were neither cold nor hot he would vomit them from his mouth. The lukewarm church was an abomination to God and as a consequence he promised to spit them out. Does this not strike a holy fear into our hearts? As we look at the church in America today, can we not see the lukewarm nature of Laodicea within our fellowships? Can we not see this nature within ourselves? In this day when over a million souls enter eternity without Christ each time the sun sets, can we expect God to overlook our lukewarmness? With the unbridled access to the word of God that this country has afforded can we not expect God to hold us accountable for our unwillingness to know his word and believe it? I would beg you to allow God to search your heart and ask what we must do to be warmed by the fires of God to a rolling boil for him. Revelation 3 records God's promise to the church as well that if we will repent, return to holiness, and open the door of our hearts to the Lordship of Jesus Christ then he will come in and have fellowship with us. Brothers and sisters, how long has it been since we have had true fellowship with him? How long has it been since he has been invited into our hearts and our lives to be Lord once again? Today, I would invite you to believe the promise of God and to draw near to his heart that your life may be changed and that our churches may be revived. Claim this promise of God that if we will open the door of our hearts he will come in and we will never be the same.