What Church Are You? Smyrna?

REVELATION 2:8-11

Revelation 2:9-10

I know your afflictions and your poverty-yet you are rich!...Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer...Be faithful, even to the point of death...

You do the work of the Lord, you are faithful to your ministry and to your relationship with God, you offer up a sacrifice of praise to God regularly; all the while your finances are being attacked, your health is bad, your loved ones are ridiculing you for your faith, people you do and don't know are falsely accusing you. All you can do is sit with your mouth dropped in astonishment wondering what went wrong.

When we have the opportunity to minister to someone we can be tempted to tell them that if they get saved God will fix everything; all will be fine. Yes, God can and will fix everything but the problem is that we give a false sense of invisibility. Meaning we steer them to think they are invisible to trials and tribulation after a commitment to Christ. Then when trials come they are left wondering what they missed. Worse, they begin to question God's faithfulness.

How many of us have felt the same let-down after being faithful to God and then find ourselves in a heated predicament? For example, you tithe regularly. You may even give offerings above your tithe. Yet, you are poor. You struggle to just put food on the table for your family. Malachi 3:10 says Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

Or, you faithfully do the work of the Lord, either in church or in outreach. You are honest, forthcoming, and have a pure heart. Then out of nowhere you are falsely accused of: dipping your hand in the church money, ministering for selfish purposes, spreading false gossip. Proverbs 3:33 says The Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous.

Why then are we attacked so heavily if we are faithful? In Revelation 2:10 God says Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days...

The devil is not going to sit back and allow God's children to be blessed without trying to intervene. As long as he roams this earth he will continually try to wreak havoc in our lives. That is why God gives us weapons to fight against the devil. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of this dark world. God gives us the Armor of God to combat the devil when he rears his ugly head(Ephesians 6:10-18).

In Revelation 2 God said he knows our afflictions and poverty - yet we are rich! How is that possible? The devil does not void God's promises. He only tries to delay them. When we use the Armor of God to combat him we get the victory and the promises come flooding in. God also said that if we remain faithful, even to the point of death, He will give us the crown of life.

Don't let trials and persecution to sway you from your faithfulness to God. In the end you win! God Bless~