By Pastor Dr. Aggrey Soyekwo
Revelation 3:1 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”_ – NIV The church in Sardis was one of the seven churches in Asia Minor. Jesus had a message for each church, according to what they had done, how they did it, how He rated their works and the quality of their relationship with Him. Nothing escaped the all seeing eye of God, even what would pass for minor and ignorable sins in man’s standard of judgement. What He told these churches is true for the church to date. He knows all our deeds and true state before Him. He desires to perfect us.The church in Sardis had a reputation of being alive and well in the faith, according to those who watched them. And they had settled for this, and happy. But God saw a dead church! How ironic this is! When you think as everyone else does, that you are alive, and yet dead. Herein is the timeless lesson, that our opinion of ourselves or others, could be worlds apart from Gods view of us. He told Isaiah that His ways are not our ways, neither our thoughts His thoughts. These two are as far apart as the heavens is from the earth, until our lives are fully aligned with His will. We can only trust our own opinions of ourselves and others, if weighed against the eternal truth of His word. Only His report can we believe, because it doesn’t lie about our true state before Him. He is the searcher of the secrets, motives and intends of every man’s heart. And the heart can be falsely convinced and established on other things other than God. On our own, we could fall into self deception. Don’t settle for, nor seek to please men, but rather to obtain a good report from God. What do you or others say about you? Would God say the same?_Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”_Shalom children of God.