Are you seeking to be restored to a right relationship with God? How do you envision that restoration? What do you believe the right relationship with God will look like? How are you going about seeking a right relationship with God?
Having a right relationship with God is critical to living a life for him. If our relationship with God is not good, we cannot fulfill his plan for our lives. A right relationship is not about checking off a list of tasks, but is communal in nature.
When Jesus is speaking to the church in Ephesus, He commends them for testing and exposing false prophets. He also commends them for enduring hardship on account of their faith in Him. You can imagine the challenges they faced living in a city that housed one of the wonders in the world, that being the temple of Diana, and living in a large port city spilling over with sailors.
Yet, they abandoned their first love. They had forgotten that Jesus had given the two greatest commands–love God and love neighbor. Without loving God and loving their neighbor, the church in Ephesus had become nothing more than a social club.
The lesson for us is to hold onto our love for God and for our neighbor. In doing so, we must remember Jesus’ teaching of the Good Samaritan, which points out that every person, even our enemies, are our neighbor. We are commanded to show Jesus’ love for all of them.
I pray we all remember the two greatest commandments Jesus gave us. I pray we remember the teaching of the Good Samaritan story. I pray each one of us will love God and love our neighbor, thereby being restored to a right relationship with God. Love God. Love neighbor. Be restored to God.
Revelation 2:7 “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God.”
Marty Pressey 