I Know Thy Works!

I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
And hast borne, and hast patience, and for My name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Revelations 2:2-5

Here we read that God is not impressed with the Work/Mission/Ministry we do, if it is not done out of our first love for Him.

Remember how thrilled and excited you were when the Lord had found you, and when you experienced how His love and peace overwhelmed you. You hardly could stop praising Him, and you were in total AWE! Your sins were forgiven, you felt cleansed and refreshed, you woke up with a song in your heart and had a smile on your face.

People were wondering what had happened to you, and this gave you an opportunity to tell others about the saving grace of Jesus, the Christ. You were beaming like the sun, because you did find LIVE and that abundantly.

Over the years this deep love and excitement faded away, but you're still in the motion of doing your "ministry". You love the Lord, but it has changed from your FIRST Love.

Even your motives to do God's work, as Jesus commanded, has changed, but apparently not so noticable. The same as the Church of Ephesus didn't notice it, until they received the writing.

They were busy buddies, but their motives shifted. They began laboring through their own human effort, instead of through the Spirit of God.

Doing good works out of your own initiative may benefit others, but is not what God wants you to do. He wants you to labor through your LOVE for Christ; minister as unto Him.

You may do a lot of work; volunteering, visiting the lonely, feeding the poor, donating money to orphans, even preaching God`s word. But if it is not done out of your first love for Christ, it has no value in God`s eyes, and you need to repent according to the Scripture.

Whatever we do for God should not be done to satisfy ourselves, as good works or just as a habit. It should be done out of our first love and being HIS work through us; as a vessel in His hands.

It does not matter what we do or how much we do, but HOW it is done WHATEVER we do for God.
You get that?

Let us pray,

Dear Father,
We come to You, in Jesus name.

We ask You to cleanse us from all unrightiousness and the work we've been doing in vain.
Not realizing that at times our motives are not pleasing unto You.
Thank You for opening our eyes for these little foxes which spoil the vineyard.
Draw us back, I pray, to our first love for our Saviour and Lord.
May our lives glorify Your name, and be a blessing to others.
Not counting ourselves, but to sacrifice our lives for others, and live well pleasing unto You in all we do and say.
I thank You for Your loving kindness and Your patience with each one of Your children. I love you Lord and I am glad to be Yours. Bless those who read this, I pray. AMEN

* * * * * * *

For His name sake,
Minister Dr. Trudy Veerman