I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Revelation 3:15-16
What are you passionate/on fire about? Perhaps you are passionate about politics. Easy to be that way, especially nowadays! How about your profession, hobby or educational goals? How passionate are you about fighting for our rights and freedoms we hold dear? We can and should be passionate about all these things!
If we can be so on fire, and heated up about other topics, why not about Jesus?
All you have to do these days is look at social media or hang out with someone longer than 5 minutes to hear or see what they are passionate about. I am guilty of the same thing! “Just putting things out there for people to educate them on the truth”, we say. And that’s fine. But how much Bible are we putting out there as well? Jesus says he is THE way THE truth and THE life. Could there be anything else as important to put out there as that?!
It’s made clear throughout the Bible that God wants us to be sold out, on fire, totally in love with him. When we live our lives any other way; pleasing ourselves first, giving God what’s left, we are considered lukewarm Christians. This is dangerous territory.
I know many of you are coffee drinkers, and I could use the “lukewarm cup of coffee” visual, or I could go the “lukewarm bathtub of water” route – nobody likes a lukewarm bath! But since I am a nursing Mama, and have been 5 times over, this is the most applicable visual I came up with to illustrate the importance of being a Christian who is “hot” for things of the Lord:
A mother who pumps breastmilk for her baby, and freezes it to use at a later time, will store this milk in a freezer storage bag. When it’s time to use the milk, Mama will get the frozen bag of milk out of the freezer and set it into a bowl of hot water until it is the desired warmth for baby to drink.
Why would a Mother never use lukewarm water to heat up her baby’s milk? Because “lukewarm” doesn’t change the temperature of anything. It only quickly takes on the temperature of what is around it. As soon as she plunged that icy milk bag into the lukewarm bowl of water, the water would become cold.
We cannot affect change in the world around us as lukewarm Christians. In fact, when we are neither cold nor hot towards things of God, we may think to ourselves ‘it is better if I don’t make a fuss, so I will just go with the flow’. In the end you do more damage than good this way, and you risk your own relationship with God becoming extinct. We must speak up for Christ.
When you come into contact with something lukewarm it is barely noticeable. On the contrary, when you have touched something hot you instantly know it, and it leaves a lasting impression! Are we leaving a hot, cold, or lukewarm impression on others?
Ask God to forgive your “cooled down Christianity”, and to help you be more on fire and ‘hot’ for the things that he is hot about!
