Protecting What Is Most Important

The sign in front of the home said, “XYZ Security Company: Protecting What Is Important to You.” Important things are usually well protected. Houses and cars are typically locked, money is deposited in a bank, important documents are secured, and children are kept out of harm’s way.

There is no shortage of people willing to take items of value. After the home of an elite English footballer was burgled and £1 million of watches and jewelry were taken, authorities claimed a gang of professional thieves likely flew into Britain for the purpose of carrying out the raid. In 1990 thieves in Boston, Massachusetts, stole artworks valued at a half billion dollars. The criminals have never been apprehended, and the artworks—including paintings by Dutch masters Vermeer and Rembrandt—have never been recovered. The promise of a lucrative payday has inspired many a criminal enterprise.

Yet artworks, watches, and money are worth little in the light of eternity. Every person alive today is embroiled in a battle for something of immense value: the mind, or, stated differently, one’s eternal destiny. Both the seal of God and the mark of the beast will be placed in the forehead (the mind) of individuals. Yet while Jesus stated that the great commandment in the law is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37), “your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Our Condition

We are caught in the middle of a war like no other. “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17). This war is raging furiously at this very moment. What, then, are you doing to protect your mind, your heart, and your family in the midst of an all-out attack?

Jesus addresses His people living in earth’s latter days when He says, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” (Rev. 3:15, 16). He then quotes end-time believers who say, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing” (verse 17).

The soon return of Jesus calls for true heart preparation on the part of God’s people.

A warning so solemn should startle God’s people. Jesus addresses the church and says, “You have no idea of the seriousness of your perilous spiritual condition.” And this is not a warning that can be dismissed as applying to someone else. The Laodicean message is for all of God’s people. 

In Christ’s Object Lessons Ellen White wrote, “Many who call themselves Christians are mere human moralists. They have refused the gift which alone could enable them to honor Christ by representing Him to the world. The work of the Holy Spirit is to them a strange work. They are not doers of the word. The heavenly principles that distinguish those who are one with Christ from those who are one with the world have become almost indistinguishable. The professed followers of Christ are no longer a separate and peculiar people. The line of demarcation is indistinct. The people are subordinating themselves to the world, to its practices, its customs, its selfishness. The church has gone over to the world in transgression of the law, when the world should have come over to the church in obedience to the law. Daily the church is being converted to the world.”1

A sobering statement, especially given what Paul wrote to the church at Rome. “To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:6-8). 

There can be no spiritual security outside a full surrender to Jesus. Thankfully, Paul did not leave the Romans without hope. He wrote, “If you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (verse 13). 

God’s Gift

The soon return of Jesus calls for true heart preparation on the part of God’s people. We live in the “perilous times” of which Paul wrote to Timothy
(2 Tim. 3:1). It is imperative that every Christian ensures his or her heart is united with the heart of heaven. There is little time to lose. Jesus is coming back soon.

For your sake, Jesus was “despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. . . . He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:3-5).

Jesus took your sins to the cross and died for you. Heaven could do no more to convince you of your immense value in the sight of God. God gave the greatest gift possible when “He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). If you will receive that gift, it is yours.

To the church of Laodicea, Jesus says, “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see” (Rev. 3:18). Faith in Christ, His own righteousness, and the eye salve of the Holy Spirit may be freely received. If you will receive Christ and His righteousness, they will be yours. Daily prayer and Bible reading will strengthen your connection with God. Surrendering your life to Jesus, you may have assurance of the gift of salvation.

“When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness.”2 

If you will invite Him to do so, Jesus will protect what is most important. 

1 Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1900, 1941), p. 315. 

2 Ibid., p. 312.