The Meal (Part 3 of 7)

The Meal (Part 3 of 7)

Cooking

“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭3:16‬

Are you on fire for the Lord? Are you running after a relationship with God?  

Cooking a meal, whether it be roasting, baking, broiling or boiling, requires heat. It requires molecules to speed up to the point of causing a rise in temperature.  Once the temperature gets hot enough, you can cook food with it. Different meals require different temperatures. 

Nobody likes to eat a cold meal that was intended to be served hot.  Temperature is a very important part of cooking. Uncooked meat can be dangerous and over cooked food can taste horrible. 

Ever eat hard pasta, uncooked chicken or a hamburger that tasted like a piece of charcoal?

When cooking a meal, the important part is getting the temperature just right so that the meal is cooked correctly. Sometimes this requires several parts of the meal to be cooked at different times so everything is finished together. This takes skill and a lot of mistakes. It also takes focus, patience and the right tools. 

Unfortunately, people will accept something that isn’t cooked, is lukewarm or sometimes overcooked. Fortunately, our God is patient and long suffering. 

There are different types of relationships with God. Uncooked, lukewarm, over cooked and undercooked.  Let’s take a quick look at those. 

An uncooked relationship is one where you aren’t doing anything to grow with God. You’re showing up to church, maybe praying a little here or there and that’s the end of it for you. There’s no growth in your spiritual life. You’ve gotten to a point just before the water boils and it will just sit there and evaporate before you do anything with it. 

Being lukewarm means you’re doing all the activities but there is not relationship. No fire. Nothing less, but also nothing more. You’re standing still. You’ll eventually cool off because you’ll stop reading and studying your Bible. Your prayer life because prayer at meals. And you start missing church more than your going. 

And a relationship that is over cooked is one where you’re overdoing it - for the wrong reasons. You’re going above and beyond, but not in a good way. Bumper stickers, tshirts, not paying attention in church but part of every church group, hosting this and that, but not getting after your personal relationship with God. You didn’t pay attention to your relationship and it burned while on the stove. 

And then there is the relationship that looks cooked on the outside, but it’s cold on the inside. This is the one that can talk the walk but isn’t walking the walk. They aren’t living right. On the outside you look like you’re on fire, but on the inside you aren’t hot at all. This is the uncooked chicken and it’s a dangerous place to be.  This is where I was. 

Just like in the Bible, being lukewarm is unacceptable. Our passion to serve, worship, pray and grow should be fire hot. We should always be running after a relationship with God. Otherwise we are just standing still. And molecules that stand still won’t get hot. 

You are the only one that can change the way your relationship grows, or even when and how it starts. If you don’t have a relationship with God, you know it. And if you know it and aren’t doing anything about it, why not?

If you’re reading this, you can start. 

“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭3:18‬