Today’s Scripture: Malachi 1-4
We love because he first loved us. – 1 John 4:19
I’ve heard it said that in the Christian life you are either moving forward or going backward. But I know people who seem to be on a kind of spiritual plateau. They aren’t in rebellion against God nor are they living in open or secret sin. But they aren’t making any progress either. They haven’t led anyone to Christ in years, and they aren’t excited about anything related to the kingdom of God. They seem to have leveled out–just cruising on some kind of spiritual automatic pilot.
During the time of the prophet Malachi, God’s people were existing on a plateau of lukewarm mediocrity. The fifty thousand Jews who returned to Jerusalem from their captivity in Babylon had been settled in Judah for over seventy years, but the Messiah spoken of by Haggai and Zechariah had not yet come. All excitement about a genuine and intimate relationship with God seemed to have drained away. Even the worship of God had become an empty chore.
This is the background against which Malachi speaks, calling this lukewarm community of believers to return to a living and vital relationship with God. It’s fascinating to note that in forty-seven of the fifty-five verses in this book, God speaks with first-person directness to His people. The book of Malachi is God’s call to His lukewarm people to be faithful during a time when heaven seemed silent. Notice how God begins in Malachi 1:2: “‘I have loved you,’ says the Lord.”
It is love that binds God to His own. And it is love that God seeks from His own. He wants to walk with you in the devotion and commitment of your first love.
Prayer
Lord, I confess that my spiritual life is often on automatic pilot. Rekindle the fervor of my first love for You and Your purposes in this world. Amen.
To Ponder
If the joy is gone from your walk with God, how hard are you looking for it?
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