know you are serious [+] Tuesday E-Devotion

I have been preparing for our 30 Days to Live series for almost 6 months.  We are now in countdown mode with only 12 days until we begin.  Our leadership team has been praying, and we believe that this is a time when God is going to bring some people, many people to accept Him.  So, we ask you to join us in asking God for 45 plus people to be saved.  That's big!

 

What's different about this series, about The Community church or about this prayer time?  It is our understanding that God has been preparing us, preparing this time and that God is going to move.  We mean business, and we are serious about this.  God is too.  How do you know that you are serious?

 

First, you take God at His word.  He is the Savior, forgiver, healer and lover of people.  Nothing has changed that from day one of creation.  But do we get serious about God?  Here is a verse to prove the case:

 

Revelation 3:15 (nlt) --- I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other!

 

The Apostle John was put away on an island all by himself, out of the way, but God shows up.  Here is a message for the church from John, and we are still reading these words thousands of years later.  People who are serious about God, get hot for God.  They literally take Him at His word and get busy.

 

Here is another verse that proves the case:

 

Matthew 17:21 (nasb) ---  But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.

 

Jesus was talking with His disciples, some other followers and a man who had a demon in him.  What Jesus said was essentially when something is hard, is that these things are to be dealt with through prayer and fasting.  I believe that prayer and fasting says to God "I am serious about this thing."  Does that make sense?

 

Luke 9:23 (nlt) --- Then he said to the crowd, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me."

 

Following Jesus is not for cowards, not for people who are not serious.  We are dealing with eternity, with heaven and hell, with stuff that will matter after we die and after all this world is gone.  Do we really mean business about God and our relationship with Him?  If you and I do, then answer this question: Do we care if people are saved or not?

 

Answer that one.  By the way, then you (and others) will know you are serious.