The new testament is filled with passages from God confronting and encouraging the churches of that day in how they were living. So with that said I have no idea why my mind thinks up some of these obscure thoughts but this one really got to me. What would God say about my life if He analyzed it and gave me a synopsis like He does for the seven churches in the new testament? If He told me exactly what He loves and hates about how I live specifically, how would I react? A better question is would I really want God to confront me on those issues I try so hard to hide? I honestly don't know the answer to that. Or if God, in His grace, picked only one thing in which to confront me, what would I be? What struggling "church" would my life resemble? Would it be Pergamum...who are true to the faith in hardship, but often worship worldly things?
Would it be Ephesus...who are doing a good job but don't truly love God?
Would it be Laodicea...who are just "lukewarm" Christians?
Would it be Sardis...who are effective at times but often superficial?
Would it be Thyatira...who love God but tolerate sin?
My desire, of course, is that it would someday be the desired "churches" of Smyrna or Philadelphia...who suffer persecution yet stand firm in the faith.
So if God analyzed my life specifically and put me in a particular struggling "church", would I live differently? I know I absolutely would, so it begs the question does God not already do this through the Spirit? Would having God put how He sees my life down on tangible paper rather than in a conscious feeling fundamentally change how I live? Is the reason I don't find myself in one of the desired churches because I don't know what struggling church I resemble... or is it that I don't want to know, so I can plead ignorance? All good questions that often times are only shortly entertained instead of wrestled with.
P.S. I think i'm in all the struggling "churches" at one time. That's the first step.
