Seven different churches with different people, different leaders, different challenges, different strengths, different weaknesses. These are the folks to whom John writes, hoping to infuse them with hope by giving them a glimpse into what will shortly begin to take place.
So many different issues to deal with, so many different knots to untie. And yet the challenge to each church is the same.
Overcome.
• Those who will overcome will eat from the tree of life (Revelation 2:7).
• Those who overcome will not be hurt at all by the second death (2:11).
• Those who overcome will eat hidden manna and be given a white stone with a new name written on it (2:17).
• Those who overcome will have authority over the nations and will be given the morning star (2:26,28).
• Those who overcome will be dressed in white (3:5).
• Those who overcome will be made into pillars in the temple of God (3:12).
• Those who overcome will sit with Jesus on His throne (3:21).
Overcomers are promised unique rewards because they are unique men and women. They’ve managed to muster their gumption, employ their imaginations, steel their resolve and withstand temptation, persecution and spiritual warfare. They’ve taken everything the evil one could dish out, and they’ve done more than survive.
They have overcome it all by the grace of God.
In spite of their real and painful circumstances, they have lived life convinced of a greater reality than that which can be seen.
Just as these promises were meant to cheer the hearts of those tired Christians nearly 2,000 years ago, they are meant to cheer our hearts today. We are called to be overcomers, to do more than survive until Jesus returns. We are called to accomplish the victory that is ours by virtue of our relationship with our victorious King.
We must heed John’s warning, though. Not everyone will overcome. Some will compromise their faith. Others will live in fear. Lest we falter in our own faith, let us listen again to the words of Jesus.
He says to us, “I know.”
• He knows our deeds, our hard work (Revelation 2:2).
• He knows the stands we have taken for His cause (2:2).
• He knows our hardships and poverty (2:9).
• He knows where we live (2:13).
• He knows our actions, our love, our faith, our devotion and our endurance (2:19).
• He searches our hearts and minds. He knows our suffering and our weakness, having experienced them Himself. In fact, Jesus is the ultimate Overcomer.
Those of you who would become overcomers, here is your charge. Allow Christ to live in, among and through you. This is comfort and challenge. The promise-keeping Promised One promises to give us ultimate victory and vindication as we allow Him to overcome through us, to make us like Himself.
Prayer
Dear God, I want to cultivate an eternal perspective as I journey through this temporal arena. May I learn to pursue the eternal reality of the unseen future over the current reality of the visible present. Knowing that reward in the Kingdom of heaven is based on faithfulness to the opportunities You give me in this life, I want to treasure each opportunity and see all of life as a stewardship. While I cannot grasp the full nature of the rewards You promise to the overcomers who abide in, love and obey Christ, I believe the greatest dimension of reward will be relational intimacy. The nature and depth of my relationships with people in heaven will be a great joy. But the greatest reward will be my capacity to know and experience You. May You be the object of my deepest love so that I will pursue You above all else.
In Jesus’s name, Amen
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