Passionate Homemaking

Rev­e­la­tions 2:8-9
“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this: ‘I know your tribu­la­tion and your poverty (but you are rich)…’”

While read­ing through the book of Rev­e­la­tion, I was struck by this simple phrase that John records the angel saying in paren­the­sis: “But you are rich!” Pro­found. The Smyrna church is suf­fer­ing tribu­la­tion and poverty and yet John brings to their atten­tion the fact that they are rich. Rich in what? They are suf­fer­ing and with­stand­ing much per­se­cu­tion and John adds a simple reminder in the midst of it all for the church to reflect on how they are rich. Rich in the eyes of the world would mean pos­sess­ing many worldly goods, but this rich means that we are rich because of our faith.

In what­ever state we are in…whether we think we are in poverty by our lack of resources, or actu­ally suf­fer­ing the loss of all things, or simply anx­ious about the lack of things, or suf­fer­ing under trials and struggles…the truth that stands forth is this com­mand to reflect upon how truly indeed you are rich. We must coun­ter­act the neg­a­tive think­ing in regards to our cir­cum­stances with this reflec­tion upon the truly pos­i­tive events and bless­ings that have been poured out upon us.

How am I truly rich today?

1. I have been given the grace of God! For­give­ness and ever­last­ing love from the Maker of the Universe.
2. I have been given every­thing I need to ful­fill the will of God for my life at the present moment.
3. I have shel­ter over my head and a won­der­ful hus­band that is pro­vid­ing so dili­gently for me and our baby.

To name a few.

It may not appear rich in the eyes of the world, but before God, the pre­cious blood of Christ makes us per­fectly clean and right­eous before Him, eter­nity is being pre­pared for us, making us rich indeed!