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Wake Up! Strengthen What Remains

I wanted to stop going through Revelation. Each time there was an “ouch” that I didn’t like. But the next church told me why I had to keep going.
To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it and repent’” (Revelation 3:1-3a).

Your children are polite, well-behaved, good workers. People know you by your children. You have a name.
But the angel says, “Wake up. Strengthen what remains.”

Often in big families, or maybe even smaller families (what's a big family anyway?), the temptation as a mom is to lighten up on discipline with the last children. It’s hard to discipline for 20 years! I got sick of teaching third grade math eight times! I want to be done, but I’m not, yet I act like I am.

It’s like cleaning that junk closet. At first, you’re ambitious, motivated, and zealous, but by the time you’ve sorted everything and now must put it all away, you just want to shove it all back in, even if it doesn’t look any better!

That’s the stage this church is in.

Maybe it’s not with the baby of your family. Maybe it’s with your husband.
You’ve poured your heart, soul, and life into the kids and now they are leaving (faster than you could imagine), you find you are married to a stranger. You’ve drifted apart. Who is this man you sleep with?

The angel says, “Wake up! Strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die.
Put the life back into disciplining your children.
Put the energy into making your husband enjoy you.

And there’s that word from the angel again, “Repent.”

What happens if you don’t?
“Therefore, if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you” (Revelation 3:3b).
A thief steals what is valuable.
Sometimes we don’t realize what we have until it’s gone.
Maybe not overnight, but slowly.
My husband recently purchased a devise that measures hand strength. Over time, our strength fades. It was with great competition he demonstrated his strength, especially when our boys showed more strength.
My hand strength was below average for my age and gender—no surprise there. I’ve had two hand surgeries, one on each hand. (Without the supplement, I would take pain medicine daily for them.) At times, I can’t even open water bottles. I must ask for help.
My strength didn’t leave all at once, like one day I couldn’t do certain things. It happened gradually, over time.

The dripping faucet didn’t stain the sink overnight. It was when it was left for months that the hard water deposits brought that ugly stain to the sink.

Same with the stranger in your bed.
Or the undisciplined youngest child.
Or the other things that the Holy Spirit is telling you.
“Wake up!”

What breaks a mother’s heart?
When her son (it only takes one) does not walk with God. Proverbs speaks of a son who brings his mother shame.
When Charles Wesley’s mom was asked, “Which child do you love the most?” (What a stupid question!) She had 19.
Her answer was insightful, “The one who is most needy, the one who is sick in the middle of the night, the one who is wayward, the one…”

A mother can’t rest on her successes with her other children. If she still has some at home, they must be corrected, helped, trained.
She also must help her husband’s ministries now, just like when they were first married. Grow with him to help meet those changing ministries.

What happens when you continue doing what you did at first?
The angel says,
“But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 3:4-6).

Being faithful in the big things, that seem so small—those day-to-day routine little obligations of being a mom—brings rewards.
What are those rewards?
“They will walk with Me.”

What motivation to wake up, keep doing what we did at first, and strengthen what remains!
While walking with Christ, we will be given a white robe, our name in the book of life, and will be confessed before God as a child of His.

We’re not dead yet. We still have a job to do.
Wake up! Strengthen what remains.
And put on your walking shoes, so you are ready to walk with Him.


Displaying 1 comment

Sonya, you hit the nail on the head. Thanks for this timely reminder! Helen

I write about what matters...to you---
women, wives and moms---
about your family, faith and future.
I write about what's hard, what helps and what heals.
I show you how it's done. And not done.
I hold your hand as you find what matters to the Savior.
And let go of those things that mattered to you, but not to Him.
I write about what matters...to Him.
               Sonya Contreras

Author of Biblical fiction, married to my best friend, and challenged by eight sons’ growing pains as I write about what matters.

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