Mid-week Prayer Focus - Philadelphia
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My family and I have been learning how to raise chickens and its been quite the learning curve figuring out how to take care of them. Our most recent lesson came from a younger rooster attacking an older rooster, and the younger one won, and ripped off the older rooster’s gobbler. This older rooster was named RooRoo, he had carefully watched over the hens- doing a great job for over a year- and it broke our hearts to see him shamed without his gobbler. He was pretty upset too. He had stuck his head in a cinder block for hours trying to cover his wound and hide from the rest of the world. We really liked RooRoo being the “in-charge” rooster- he had always done a good job of being very protective of the flock. Well, after his defeat, the other rooster wouldn’t leave RooRoo alone, and he just kept attacking him, so we separated them. The younger rooster remained in the fencing with the other chickens, and RooRoo was set outside the fence and could roam the entire yard freely.
But RooRoo wasn’t satisfied with the outside world and all it had to offer. He felt he had a job to do- and that was looking after the rest of the chickens. I would do my best to keep him safe and away from the other rooster but he had a perseverance like none I had ever seen before, and would fly over the fence and land on top of the coop, which would lead to him jumping down to join the others and… yeah, running for his life. This would happen day after day after day. RooRoo would not let go, even in his weakened, defeated, no-gobbler state of existence, he would persist and not give up on trying to look after the other hens, no matter how many times the younger rooster beat him up and chased him off. He had little power left in him, yet he persisted and held fast, and the solution ended up being that he was rewarded with a new, better home at a farm we sold him to, where he was taken in and he could fully function according to his gifting and design, without being attacked.
Have you ever felt like you had little power or authority in comparison to those around you? Have you ever felt mistreated by others who took advantage of you, who didn’t deserve to be in the positions they were in? The church in Philadelphia perhaps felt like this. In Revelation 3, verses 7-13 we have the message to the church in Philadelphia. And Jesus recognizes that they have had a little power, but have kept His word- not denying His name, and have thus persevered even as others around them lied and merely pretended to be followers of God. In verse 8 Jesus praises them and declares reward for them having kept His word. In verse 9 he declares that the untrue- the liars- will be sorted out and He will make them come and bow down at the feet of the true followers, and He will make them know that He has loved these true ones who have persevered- reminding us that His justice will come- encouraging us to again- hold fast and persevere. In verse 10 he describes His word, as the “word of My perseverance.” This is an interesting concept. Think about all that Jesus endured, as God Himself, coming to this corrupt dirty world, to attempt to teach stubborn mankind truth, then enduring unjust torture and death on the cross- what perseverance. And as Jesus exemplified these things first, now we must as well. The very essence of the gospel requires patience, perseverance, endurance, and focus. And what encouragement it is to know that even in our weakness- having “little power”- we can still keep His word, persevere, and be rewarded greatly by our Father in Heaven.
Verse 12 talks about this reward. To he who overcomes, Jesus likens that person to a pillar in God’s temple, an actual permanent part of the structure of God’s temple- one that would never have to be separated out from God’s mighty, defending presence.
So be like RooRoo. Persevere and no matter how weak you feel, continue to do the task you have been given as a follower of Jesus. No matter how many times life beats you up, hold fast to His word of perseverance- hold fast to the gospel, and look forward to your Father’s defense and reward that is coming soon.