Faith & Love: A One Year Bible Reading Plan - Part 12Sample

Today’s Chapter is Revelation 3, and today’s Verse of The Day is:

Revelation 3:20-21 AMPC: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears and listens to and heeds My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will eat with him, and he [will eat] with Me. He who overcomes (is victorious), I will grant him to sit beside Me on My throne, as I Myself overcame (was victorious) and sat down beside My Father on His throne."

In this closing segment of the letters to the churches, this message to Laodicea offers two perspectives that have profound implications for my posture:

1. JESUS VALUES RELATIONSHIP

Unlike the conquering Rome that they know, Jesus does not force or impose. He stands and knocks, waiting to be accepted in. He seeks to ‘eat’ with us. His objective is intimacy in a close relationship. He wants to ‘share life’ with us rather than dictate and command.

2. JESUS IS THE FIRST (Rom 8:29)

From a place of relationship, Jesus makes this appeal. He calls us once more to follow Him. To move past the ‘sin that so easily ensnares us and run with endurance the race that is set before us.’ (Heb 12:1-2).

He has positioned you to overcome. He is only the first because He was intended to be followed by a second – you!

How could my spiritual life ‘heat up’ if I approached Jesus like a close friend rather than a government?

How would my posture develop if I discovered that Jesus modelled what I could do - overcome?

What could I do today to shift my focus to the ‘joy set before me’ so that I could run in the Way?