DAILY DEVOTIONAL – February 9, 2021
“Taking Inventory”
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You have made heaven our home through Your sacrifice for our sins on the cross. You have made our hearts Your home even now. Until that day when You return to take us home to the place You have prepared for us, keep us firm in the faith that You have graciously given, and by Your Spirit, strengthen us to endure faithfully to the very end the age. Amen.
Scripture: Revelation 3:1-6
And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: “The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Devotional – “Taking Inventory”
ABC News published a story in 2010 that told of a family who was saved from bankruptcy and foreclosure by a gift they didn’t know they had. Vincent Zurzolo is the owner of Metropolis Comics and Collectibles in New York. Vincent had a run in with the family and was there the moment this family discovered the good news of what they had received.
Vincent told ABC news that the family came into his store literally in tears. The family home was going to be lost and they were devastated. Not knowing what else to do, they began packing up their belongings in the house and preparing to have their home foreclosed on; a home that had been in their family since the 1950’s. Looking to sell the belongings they could in order to get some much needed cash, they brought a box of miscellaneous comic books they forgot they had in the basement to Vincent’s store hoping to get anything they could for them. Little did the family know that in that box was the answer to their prayers.
Amongst the small collection of comic books that had been collecting dust for years was a copy of Action Comics No. 1; the first comic in which Superman ever appeared. Most of the comic books in the box were worth between $10 and $30. The copy of Action Comics No.1, dated June 1938 and depicting the Man of Steel lifting a car above his head, was extremely rare. Originally this comic book sold for 10 cents, but earlier that year two other copies of this particular comic book sold for an astonishing $1 million and $1.5 million.
“It’s a tremendous piece of American pop culture history,” Vincent Zurzolo said. “You couldn’t have asked for a happier ending,” Zurzolo said. “Superman saved the day.”
It took the very real and immanent threat of being left homeless for this family to take inventory of all that they had and be brought to the point of being willing to let it all go. They were completely unaware of the value of what they had inherited until circumstances demanded it.
I think this story can serve as a good reminder for us to take daily inventory of the priceless inheritance we have received from the gracious love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. So often, like this family, it takes either the immanent threat of loss or actually suffering significant loss for us to step back and remember what it is we have and what is ultimately of eternal value. You cannot lose something you never had to begin with, and the truth is that you and I have nothing of true value, nothing of everlasting worth, nothing that will endure when the last day of our residence on this earth comes to pass, except the precious blood of Christ and the gift of faith God has given us.
Fortunately, the family did discover what they had been given in time to avoid foreclosure, but even if the family never had those comic books and was forced out of their home, there would have still been time to pick up the pieces and start over. The day is quickly approaching, however, when there is no more time, when there are no more second chances. Only God knows when time is up, and when that time comes, all of our treasures, all of our accomplishments, all of our good intentions and even the best of our righteous deeds will be of absolutely no value. This world and all who dwell in it are morally bankrupt, and we owe God a debt we cannot pay back. Nothing we posses is worth nearly enough. Nothing we have done or can do will ever be enough to balance the scales against our sin. Our only saving grace will be Jesus, and whether or not our names our found in His book of life.
Our Scripture passage from Revelation 3 is part of a letter written to the church in the city of Sardis. It is a letter written to a church of Christ, and written by the resurrected Christ Himself through the hand of the Apostle John. Jesus told this church, “I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” From a worldly, human perspective, this church was doing everything right. They certainly had the appearance of faithfulness and righteousness, but the Lord sees the heart and reveals that whatever they were doing, even if it appeared good, was not done from true faith. As Hebrews 11:6 says, “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
Jesus said to them, “Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.” You see friends, it’s faith in what we have been told in the Word of God that is of eternal worth. “Remember,” Jesus said, and “keep it.” In other words, nothing else is more important than our faith. But it is not our faith that saves us – as if there is a specific amount or “enough” faith. Jesus said it only takes the faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains. How can such small faith do such great things? Because true faith is not found in it’s amount, but in the one in whom we place our faith. Small faith in an eternally big God is great faith because it is faith in His power, His promises, and His perfect Word. Faith in Christ is trust in Christ. Trusting His words by knowing them, remembering them, living by them, repenting when we sin against His Words, submitting all that we are and all that we have to His Word, His will, and His ways, because in the end that is all that will be; Him.
When we live all of our life remembering that God has given us the riches of heaven itself, that we have already received eternal life and been raised with Christ in baptism, and that this world and all that is in it will be foreclosed on and give way to the new heavens and new earth, then we are able to walk through this life, regardless of our circumstances, rejoicing and able to say, “I couldn’t ask for a happier ending. Jesus has saved the day.” He has saved all of our days.
This world is not your home my friends. So, as you are passing through, remember what you have heard each day, keep the Word in your mind and in your heart, take a careful inventory of everything in your life and keep first things first. Keep Jesus, who is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, first, because it is in Christ Jesus our Lord that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today, and has already taken care of all of your tomorrows. Amen.
