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12/11/2009 - Hold On To Good, Get Rid Of The Bad Revelation 2:19-20
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Hold On To The Good, Get Rid of The Bad
REFERENCE: Revelation 2:19-20 “I know all the things you do. I have seen your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. And I can see your constant improvement in all these things. 20 “But I have this complaint against you. You are permitting that woman, that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet, to lead my servants astray. She teaches them to commit sexual sin and to eat food offered to idols.
Observation: This passage reminds us of two important truths: first, that God sees what we do for Him. We may think that it goes unnoticed, and it may, by humans but God knows what we do. He knows when we serve Him and He knows, and this is the time we may feel most alone, when we are patiently enduring hard times. He notices when we are making improvement. This should be a great encouragement to us.
On the other hand, the second truth is that no matter how well we serve Him it does not make up for the immoral decisions we make -- especially those that allow sexual and idolatrous temptations into our lives. We must realize that if we allow temptation to reside near us, we will fall to it eventually. God judges the fall but also the willingness to put up with the temptation. We need to get it as far away from us as we can.
Application/Confession: I think that Internet pornography and trash on cable (and even broadcast) TV is the most common kind of temptation that too many Christians allow into their lives and homes. Just like Jezebel it temps us (myself included) to sexual sin and idolatry. We need to be ruthless in cutting it out of our lives. We need to keep good filters on the Internet and if TV is causing us to be tempted to sin, don’t compromise, get rid of it.
For women, especially single ones, the problem too often, is relationships that they know they should not be encouraging but find it hard to stay away from. These men meet needs in their lives and it is hard for all of us, men or women, to say "no" to something that clearly meets our needs and trust that God, who we can't see, will meet these needs instead. Yet, that is the faith that God calls us to exercise.
PRAYER: Dear Lord I want You, and You alone, to be my only love. Forgive me and forgive us for allowing temptation to come and live in our lives and not doing anything about it.
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