I don’t know about you, but for many years, I wanted heaven AND this world. My time, which I never had enough of, was focused on career ambitions, playing sports, watching sports on TV and reading about sports. Yes, sports was a big time and financial investment. Sports was my idol. My time with God was infrequent and inconsistent. I wanted to go to heaven, but I wasn’t fully invested in eternal things. Friends and family may not have noticed where I spent all my time and money outside of work, but God did. More importantly, He cared enough to help me.
I Was Lukewarm
Jesus says He wants to help us! “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends” (Revelation 3:20 NLT).
For over 30 years I knew about Jesus but He was more of an acquaintance than a true friend. I had been sleeping with one foot in this world and another foot desiring heaven. I would open the door to my heart but when Jesus came in, I didn’t give Him much of my time because I filled it with things of this world. I fit Jesus in when it was convenient and made sense — like going to church or the occasional Bible study. I was lukewarm.
Jesus warns us not to be lukewarm! “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:15-17 ESV).
Jesus warns us that we’re sleeping with a lukewarm attitude and even those studying and watching for Jesus to come could miss out on the gift of eternal life. This warning is given to God’s people in the parable of the ten virgins when Jesus says, “‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you’” (Matthew 25:12 ESV).
Wake-Up Call
It’s time to wake up! It’s time to really know Jesus, to be completely, 100% fully surrendered to Him and to earnestly ask for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit to refine and purify away all earthliness and to get us fit for eternal life. Jesus encourages us to do this when He says, “I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see” (Revelation 3:18 ESV).
Three and a half years ago, God woke me up! Thanks to His amazing miraculous power, mercy, love and grace, He started transforming me from being lukewarm to being hot. In July 2017, the Lord convicted me to spend more time with Him, 60 minutes daily, by following seven key relationship principles. Within the first month, I struggled with the idea of quitting and giving up. I kept claiming Bible promises and remembering that I needed to go through this painful experience of dying to self daily. Memorizing scripture really sped up my transformation from lukewarm to hot. During the transformation I claimed, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 ESV).
Call to Action
It’s time to get ready! It’s time to give 100% for Him. It’s time to start claiming Bible promises and start living with more urgency and hunger for our Creator. It’s time to stop focusing on what divides us and start focusing on Bible promises that will transform us.
Are you ready to give everything to Jesus? Are you willing to ask daily for the power of the Holy Spirit to transform you? Are you open to giving Him more of your time?
It’s time to get ready! It’s time to give Jesus our time and claim a Bible promise that will transform us to reflect His image:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”
Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT)
