Before we begin

Revelation 1 taught us something important before we encountered beasts, horns, seals, trumpets or prophetic timelines:

Look at Jesus first.

John turned to see the voice speaking to him, and what he saw was not a chart or a sequence of historical events.

He saw Jesus.

He saw Him walking among seven golden lampstands.

Revelation itself tells us that those lampstands represent the churches.

So when Revelation 2 begins, Jesus has not moved.

He is still among the lampstands.

Now we get to hear what He says as He walks among His people.

And there is one phrase that keeps appearing:

“I know…”

To Ephesus:

“I know thy works…”

To Smyrna:

“I know thy works, and tribulation…”

To Pergamum:

“I know thy works, and where thou dwellest…”

To Thyatira:

“I know thy works…”

That became one of the central thoughts for me while studying this chapter.

Jesus knows His church.

Not merely what the church says about itself.

Not merely what other people see.

He sees beneath activity, reputation, theology and outward appearances.

He sees love.

He sees suffering.

He sees faithfulness.

He sees compromise.

He sees what we tolerate.

And He sees the heart.

That makes Revelation 2 more than a study of four ancient congregations.

It becomes deeply personal.

What does Jesus see when He looks at me?

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First, let the text speak

Revelation 2 contains messages to four churches:

Ephesus – Revelation 2:1–7
Smyrna – Revelation 2:8–11
Pergamum – Revelation 2:12–17
Thyatira – Revelation 2:18–29

These were real churches in Asia Minor.

Whatever additional prophetic significance we may later see in these letters, we must begin there.

Real Christians lived in these places.

They faced real pressures.

They struggled with real spiritual problems.

And Jesus addressed each church according to what He saw there.

Only after allowing the text to speak in its original setting should we ask whether there is a larger prophetic pattern.

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1. Ephesus: When doing everything right is not enough

Revelation 2:1–7

The first church is Ephesus.

And initially, the report sounds excellent.

Jesus says:

“I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience…”

They worked.

They persevered.

They could not tolerate evil.

They tested people who claimed to be apostles and discovered that some were false.

They had endured for Christ’s name.

They had not given up.

This is not a careless church.

It is active.

Discerning.

Doctrinally alert.

Persistent.

And then comes one word:

“Nevertheless…”

Something is wrong.

“Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”

That stopped me.

Because apparently it is possible to do many of the right things for the wrong reason.

It is possible to understand doctrine.

It is possible to recognise error.

It is possible to participate faithfully in religious activity.

It is even possible to work hard for Jesus.

And somewhere along the way, our relationship with Jesus can quietly become something we remember rather than something we presently experience.

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Paul had warned Ephesus

This becomes even more interesting when we go back to Acts.

Paul spent considerable time in Ephesus. Before leaving the Ephesian elders, he warned them:

“For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.”

Acts 20:29

He warned them that false teachers would arise.

Years later, Jesus says to Ephesus:

“Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars.”

They had listened.

They had guarded the truth.

They had developed discernment.

But somewhere in the process of protecting truth, something else had happened.

Their love had cooled.

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Paul had also spoken to them about love

When we read Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, love is everywhere.

He prayed that Christ would dwell in their hearts by faith and that they would be:

“rooted and grounded in love.”

Ephesians 3:17

He told them:

“walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.”

Ephesians 5:2

And he ended his letter with:

“Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.”

Ephesians 6:24

This was a church that had known love.

And now Jesus says:

You have left your first love.

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Jeremiah and the ache in God’s heart

While studying Ephesus, my thoughts went to Jeremiah.

God remembers the earlier relationship He had with His people:

“I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals…”

Jeremiah 2:2

And then He asks:

“What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me?”

Jeremiah 2:5

There is something heartbreaking in that question.

What did you find in Me that made you leave?

Later God says:

“Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.”

Jeremiah 3:22

I have loved that promise for years.

God does not say:

Come back and I will put a plaster over the problem.

He says:

I will heal it.

But notice the first word:

Return.

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Remember. Repent. Do.

That is exactly what Jesus tells Ephesus:

“Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works…”

Revelation 2:5

Three actions:

Remember.

Repent.

Do.

Jesus does not say:

Try very hard to feel the way you used to feel.

He says:

Return.

Repentance is not passive.

Neither is it earning salvation.

God performs the healing.

But I choose whether I will continue walking away or turn towards Him.

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What does “first love” look like?

Think about human relationships.

When you first fall in love with someone, you want to spend time with that person.

You want to talk.

You want to listen.

You think about them.

You want to know them.

Nobody has to give you a rule requiring you to phone them.

Relationship creates desire.

But relationships can change.

Two people can continue living in the same house while intimacy slowly disappears.

Responsibilities may still be fulfilled.

The routine continues.

But something has changed.

The same can happen spiritually.

I can continue doing things for God while spending remarkably little time with God.

I can speak intelligently about God while hardly speaking to God.

That raised a difficult question for me:

Is my history with God greater than my present relationship with God?

I can remember times when His presence felt tangible.

I can remember answered prayers.

I can remember what He taught me.

I can tell stories about what God has done.

But yesterday’s relationship cannot replace today’s walk with Him.

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The three-legged stool

Something Morris Venden taught came back to me while studying this.

He used the simple illustration of a three-legged stool to describe the relationship with Christ.

The first leg is Bible study.

Not reading merely to acquire theological information.

I can study Revelation and learn symbols, dates and doctrines while missing Jesus completely.

Instead, I want to ask:

What does this passage show me about God that I did not see before?

What does it show me about myself?

What am I going to do with what I have discovered?

The second leg is prayer.

Real conversation with God.

And this question became very personal:

I may speak a great deal about God, but how much do I speak to God?

The third leg is sharing.

When I spend time with Christ in His Word and speak with Him in prayer, something begins to overflow.

Witnessing becomes less about manufacturing religious content and more about sharing Someone I am actually encountering.

Jesus put the principle simply:

“Abide in me…”

John 15:4

The branch does not strain to manufacture fruit.

It remains connected to the Vine.

Fruit follows.

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Worship begins with seeing God

This also changed the way I thought about worship.

There is a difference between participating in the act of worship and having a worshipping posture.

I can sing.

Pray.

Attend church.

Study theology.

Keep religious practices.

And still have a heart that has become distant.

So how do I regain a worshipping heart?

I need to know whom I worship.

Scripture repeatedly calls us to look:

“Behold your God!”

Isaiah 40:9

“Behold the Lamb of God…”

John 1:29

“Looking unto Jesus…”

Hebrews 12:2

Worship is a natural response to seeing God’s beauty.

I don’t manufacture awe.

I behold Him.

And as His character becomes clearer, awe follows.

Paul says:

“But we all… beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image…”

2 Corinthians 3:18

We become changed by beholding.

Perhaps the little children’s song had more theology in it than we realised:

Read your Bible, pray every day, and you’ll grow, grow, grow.

After all our theological sophistication, the basic mechanics of relationship have not changed.

Listen to Him.

Speak to Him.

Stay close.

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2. Smyrna: When following Jesus hurts

Revelation 2:8–11

Then we arrive at Smyrna.

And suddenly the atmosphere changes.

There is no rebuke recorded for this church.

Instead Jesus says:

“I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich)…”

Revelation 2:9

That little phrase in brackets changes everything:

“But thou art rich.”

They looked poor.

Jesus called them rich.

Immediately our human measurements are challenged.

We tend to look at circumstances and make conclusions about spiritual reality.

If life is going well, God must be blessing me.

If everything is falling apart, perhaps God has abandoned me.

Smyrna destroys that equation.

These believers were suffering.

And Jesus knew.

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Look at how Jesus introduces Himself

Before Jesus says anything about their suffering, He tells them who He is:

“These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive.”

Revelation 2:8

Why introduce Himself that way to Smyrna?

Because they are facing death.

Jesus does not speak to suffering people from a safe distance.

He says, in effect:

I have been through death.

And I am alive.

The One telling them not to fear is not Someone unfamiliar with suffering.

The risen Christ has wounds.

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“Fear none of those things”

Jesus says:

“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer…”

That is not the promise I would naturally want.

I would prefer:

You won’t suffer.

But that is not what Jesus says.

He acknowledges that suffering is coming.

Some will be imprisoned.

They will be tested.

And then:

“Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”

Christian faith is not a contract in which God guarantees that nothing painful will happen to us.

Smyrna teaches something much deeper.

Suffering is not evidence that Jesus has stopped seeing me.

He says:

I know.

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Poor, but rich

This may be one of the most beautiful reversals in Revelation 2.

The world looked at Smyrna and saw poverty.

Jesus saw wealth.

That means there are forms of wealth that cannot be measured by a bank balance.

And there are forms of poverty that can exist in the middle of abundance.

It made me ask:

If God removed the things I associate with blessing, would I still believe He is good?

Is my faith built on what God gives me?

Or on who God is?

Smyrna reminds me that Jesus Himself must ultimately be enough.

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The crown of life

Jesus promises:

“I will give thee a crown of life.”

And then:

“He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.”

The first death is not the end of the story.

That is why Jesus introduced Himself as the One who was dead and is alive.

The church may lose everything this world calls security.

Even life itself.

But Christ says:

You cannot ultimately lose what I have promised you.

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3. Pergamum: When compromise becomes reasonable

Revelation 2:12–17

To Pergamum Jesus says:

“I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is…”

Again:

I know.

Jesus knows the environment in which His people are trying to live faithfully.

He does not judge them as though circumstances do not exist.

He knows where they live.

He knows the pressure.

He knows what faithfulness costs there.

And He commends them:

“thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith…”

Even when Antipas was killed, they held on.

This is significant.

Pergamum had survived external pressure.

But now another danger was developing.

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When attack from outside becomes compromise inside

Jesus says:

“But I have a few things against thee…”

There were people among them holding the doctrine of Balaam and the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

Revelation itself tells us why Balaam matters:

“who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.”

Revelation 2:14

That sends us back to the story surrounding Balaam in Numbers.

Balaam could not simply curse Israel into destruction.

Instead, Israel was drawn into compromise.

And that made me think.

Sometimes what cannot destroy us through direct attack can slowly weaken us through accommodation.

The enemy does not always need me to stand up one morning and announce:

I reject God.

Perhaps all he needs is:

Surely this one little thing doesn’t matter.

Then another.

Then another.

Until what once troubled my conscience becomes normal.

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Compromise rarely introduces itself as compromise

That may be why compromise is dangerous.

It normally sounds reasonable.

Everybody does it.

Times have changed.

Surely God understands.

It’s only this once.

I’m not really doing anything wrong.

And gradually the line moves.

Pergamum therefore asks me a very uncomfortable question:

Where am I negotiating with something God has already made clear?

Not necessarily:

What enormous apostasy have I committed?

But:

What have I repeatedly justified because obedience would be inconvenient?

Jesus’ answer is again:

“Repent…”

Turn around.

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Hidden manna

Then comes the promise:

“To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna…”

Manna takes us back to Israel in the wilderness.

God sustained His people where there was no natural means of sustaining themselves.

Perhaps that promise becomes particularly meaningful in a letter about compromise.

The world says:

You need this in order to survive.

Christ says:

I can sustain you.

Compromise often begins when I stop believing that God is enough.

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The white stone and the new name

Jesus also promises:

“a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”

There have been several suggestions about the historical meaning of the white stone, and we should be careful not to turn one possible background into certainty.

But the text itself gives us something beautiful.

Christ gives the overcomer a name known personally to the recipient.

There is intimacy here.

The world around Pergamum pressures believers to conform.

Jesus gives them an identity that comes from Him.

Perhaps that is another antidote to compromise.

When I know whose I am, I do not need the world to tell me who I am.

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4. Thyatira: When tolerance stops being love

Revelation 2:18–29

Then we arrive at Thyatira.

Jesus introduces Himself:

“the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire…”

Those eyes matter.

Because Thyatira is about something being tolerated.

Jesus sees beneath the surface.

But again, notice that He does not begin with criticism.

He says:

“I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience…”

And then something remarkable:

“the last to be more than the first.”

Their works are increasing.

Their love is evident.

Their service is evident.

Their faith is evident.

Compare that with Ephesus.

Ephesus had strong discernment but declining love.

Thyatira had love and growing works, but something destructive was being tolerated.

That gives us an important balance.

Truth without love is not the Christianity Jesus wants.

But neither is a version of love that refuses to confront what destroys people.

Biblical love and biblical truth belong together.

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Jezebel

Jesus says:

“thou sufferest that woman Jezebel…”

The name immediately sends us back into the Old Testament.

Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, became associated with idolatry, false worship and the persecution of God’s prophets.

Whether “Jezebel” in Revelation was the woman’s literal name or a deliberate symbolic designation, the Old Testament association is unmistakable.

But notice the central issue:

Thyatira tolerated her influence.

That is different from Ephesus.

Ephesus tested false apostles and rejected them.

Thyatira allowed destructive teaching to remain.

And that forces us to ask whether we sometimes confuse tolerance with love.

There are times when patience is Christlike.

There are times when mercy is necessary.

There are times when people need enormous grace while God works with them.

But there are also things that, when allowed to remain, begin destroying the very people we claim to love.

Jesus knows the difference.

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“I gave her space to repent”

Then I noticed something beautiful.

Before judgement, Jesus says:

“I gave her space to repent…”

There again we see His heart.

The One whose eyes are like fire gives time to repent.

Jesus is not waiting impatiently for an opportunity to destroy.

He calls.

He warns.

He gives opportunity.

He wants repentance.

But His patience must not be confused with indifference.

Grace does not mean that evil ceases to matter.

Eventually there comes a point when persistent refusal has consequences.

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“I search the reins and hearts”

Then Jesus says:

“all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts…”

Revelation 2:23

And suddenly we are back at the central theme of the whole chapter.

Jesus sees what we do not see.

People looked at Ephesus and might have seen a strong church.

Jesus saw lost love.

People looked at Smyrna and saw poverty and suffering.

Jesus saw riches.

People looked at Pergamum and saw courageous Christians who had survived persecution.

Jesus also saw compromise beginning within.

People looked at Thyatira and saw love, service, faith and increasing works.

Jesus saw something destructive being tolerated.

Jesus does not see as we see.

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Hold fast

But not everyone in Thyatira had accepted the false teaching.

To them Jesus says:

“that which ye have already hold fast till I come.”

Sometimes faithfulness is not about discovering something new.

Sometimes it is simply:

Hold on.

Hold onto Christ.

Hold onto truth.

Hold onto what He has already shown you.

Don’t surrender it because the culture around you has changed.

Don’t surrender it because compromise has become fashionable.

Don’t surrender it because faithfulness has become lonely.

Hold fast till I come.

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The morning star

At the end of the letter Jesus promises the overcomer:

“I will give him the morning star.”

Later Revelation tells us exactly who the Morning Star is:

“I Jesus… am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.”

Revelation 22:16

What is the ultimate reward?

Jesus.

That is where Revelation keeps bringing us.

Not merely crowns.

Not merely authority.

Not merely eternal life as an abstract concept.

Christ Himself.

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Are these churches also prophetic?

Up to this point we have allowed Revelation 2 to speak first about the actual churches receiving these messages.

There is, however, another way Christians have historically read the seven churches.

Within the historicist interpretation of Revelation, the seven churches have also been understood as representing successive periods in the history of the Christian church.

In that reading, a broad sequence is often suggested:

Ephesus represents the apostolic church.

Smyrna represents the persecuted early church.

Pergamum represents the period in which Christianity moved from persecution towards political acceptance and increasing accommodation with imperial power.

Thyatira represents the long medieval period in which the institutional church accumulated significant religious and political authority while serious doctrinal corruption developed.

Later churches in Revelation 3 continue that proposed historical sequence.

This reading became particularly significant in historicist Protestant interpretation and was later adopted and developed within Seventh-day Adventist prophetic interpretation.

But we need to keep our method clear.

Revelation 2 itself does not give dates to these churches or explicitly state that they represent successive historical eras.

That is an interpretation drawn from perceived correspondences between the sequence of the churches and church history.

It may be studied and tested.

But it should not be confused with what the text explicitly says.

Scripture remains primary.

And even if we recognise a historical pattern, the messages were never intended merely to help us identify what was wrong with Christians centuries ago.

Jesus repeatedly says:

“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

Not:

Let the historian hear.

Not:

Let the theologian hear.

He that hath an ear.

That includes me.

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Something happens when we place all four churches together

When I stepped back from the individual letters, I began seeing a progression.

Ephesus

Truth without first love.

They recognised error, but something had happened to their relationship with Christ.

Smyrna

Faith tested through suffering.

They had very little according to worldly measurements, yet Jesus called them rich.

Pergamum

Faithfulness mixed with compromise.

External pressure had not destroyed them, but accommodation was beginning to work from within.

Thyatira

Love and service mixed with tolerated corruption.

Compromise was no longer merely present. It was being allowed room to teach and influence.

That gives me four heart questions.

Ephesus asks:

Do I still love Jesus, or has religious activity begun replacing relationship?

Smyrna asks:

Will I trust Jesus when following Him costs me something?

Pergamum asks:

Where have I begun negotiating with something I once knew was wrong?

Thyatira asks:

What have I tolerated for so long that compromise has started feeling normal?

Those questions are far more uncomfortable than simply identifying ancient churches.

Because now Revelation is reading me.

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Look again at Jesus

But there is another pattern, and I think it is even more important.

Look at how Jesus reveals Himself.

To Ephesus

He is the One:

“who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.”

I am here.

To Smyrna

He is:

“the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive.”

Death does not have the final word.

To Pergamum

He has:

“the sharp sword with two edges.”

My Word has authority.

To Thyatira

He is the Son of God:

“who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire.”

Nothing is hidden from Me.

The answer to every church ultimately begins with a clearer vision of Jesus.

That takes us straight back to Revelation 1.

Before symbols:

Look at Jesus.

Before analysing the church:

Look at Jesus.

Before examining everybody else’s compromise:

Look at Jesus.

Because Revelation is first:

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ…”

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What does Revelation 2 reveal about Jesus?

It shows me a Jesus who knows.

He knows my work.

He knows my motives.

He knows my suffering.

He knows where I live.

He knows the pressure I am under.

He knows what I have endured.

He knows what I have tolerated.

He knows where love has cooled.

He knows where compromise has entered.

He knows my heart.

But His knowledge is not cold surveillance.

He walks among the lampstands.

He is present.

He commends what is good.

He corrects what is dangerous.

He warns.

He calls.

He gives time to repent.

He promises life.

He promises sustenance.

He promises identity.

And ultimately He promises Himself.

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What does Revelation 2 reveal about us?

Perhaps we are not always what we appear to be.

We can look rich and be poor.

We can look poor and be rich.

We can be doctrinally correct and relationally distant.

We can be loving and still tolerate things that destroy.

We can survive open persecution and then quietly surrender through compromise.

We can have yesterday’s testimony without today’s relationship.

That is why I cannot read these letters only as messages to other people.

I have to allow Jesus to ask me:

Where are you in this?

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What do I do with what I have learned?

This is where the study has to come home.

I do not want Revelation simply to make me knowledgeable.

I want it to bring me closer to Jesus.

So perhaps Revelation 2 gives us some very practical responses.

When love has grown cold:

Return.

When suffering comes:

Remain faithful.

When compromise has entered:

Repent.

When truth is under pressure:

Hold fast.

And through all of it:

Listen.

“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

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The promises to the overcomer

There is one final pattern running through these letters.

Jesus continually speaks about overcoming.

To Ephesus:

“I will give to eat of the tree of life…”

To Smyrna:

“shall not be hurt of the second death.”

To Pergamum:

“I will give to eat of the hidden manna…”

To Thyatira:

“I will give him the morning star.”

The tree of life takes us back to Eden and forward to Revelation 22.

The second death reminds us that earthly death does not have the final word.

The hidden manna reminds us that God can sustain His people.

And the Morning Star is ultimately Christ Himself.

The promises keep pointing beyond the present struggle.

There is more coming.

This is not the end of the story.

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Bringing Revelation 2 home

Perhaps the question I am left with is not:

Which church am I?

Perhaps it is:

Jesus, what do You see when You look at me?

Has my love for You become mostly a memory?

Am I doing all the right things while intimacy with You quietly disappears?

Have I interpreted suffering as evidence that You have abandoned me?

Where have I begun compromising?

What have I tolerated because confronting it would be uncomfortable?

And perhaps beneath all those questions is one much simpler prayer:

Jesus, show me Yourself again.

Because I am increasingly convinced that genuine worship cannot be manufactured.

When I see His heart, worship follows.

When I see His goodness, I want to speak with Him.

When I see His faithfulness, I can trust Him in suffering.

When I know who I am in Him, compromise loses some of its attraction.

When I understand His love, repentance stops looking like punishment and starts looking like an invitation home.

And suddenly Jeremiah’s words belong here again:

“Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.”

Jeremiah 3:22

He does not merely identify the disease.

He offers healing.

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From Revelation 1 to Revelation 2

Revelation 1 showed us Jesus walking among the lampstands.

Revelation 2 allows us to hear Him speaking as He walks.

And perhaps before we move into Revelation 3, we should remain here for a moment.

The One walking among His churches is not distant.

He sees.

He knows.

He loves.

He corrects.

He calls.

And when necessary, He says:

Come back.

That is not the voice of a God looking for an excuse to reject us.

It is the voice of the One who loved us enough to die for us, who was dead and is alive, and who still walks among His people.

So perhaps my response to Revelation 2 can be very simple:

Lord, give me ears to hear.

Where I have wandered, bring me home.

Where I am suffering, help me trust You.

Where I have compromised, give me courage to repent.

Where I have tolerated what is separating me from You, give me courage to surrender it.

And above everything else:

Let me see Jesus.

Because if I keep looking at Him, I believe the rest will begin to find its proper place.

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Grace Encounter

There is one phrase Jesus repeats to every church:

“I know.”

He knows Ephesus and its fading first love.

He knows Smyrna and its suffering.

He knows Pergamum and its compromise.

He knows Thyatira and the things it has tolerated.

And He knows us.

That can sound frightening until we notice something beautiful.

Jesus knows everything, and He has not walked away.

He does not expose the churches in order to humiliate them. He tells them the truth because He loves them too much to leave them where they are.

He encourages what is good.

He confronts what is destroying them.

He calls them back.

And then He makes promises to those who overcome.

Perhaps our grace encounter in Revelation 2 is simply allowing Jesus to say:

“I know.”

I know where you have been faithful.

I know where you are hurting.

I know where you have compromised.

I know what you have tolerated.

I know where your love for Me has grown cold.

And still:

I am calling you back to Me.

We do not have to hide from the One who already knows us completely.

We can come home.

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A prayer after Revelation 2

Father,

You know me.

You know the parts of my life that other people see, and You know the parts nobody sees.

You know when I am serving You from love, and You know when I am simply going through the motions.

You know my suffering.

You know the places where I am tired.

You know the pressure I am under.

You know the compromises I excuse.

You know what I have tolerated.

And still You call me.

Thank You that when love grows cold, You do not simply walk away.

You say, “Remember. Repent. Return.”

Thank You that when suffering comes, You remind me that You were dead and are alive.

Thank You that when the world pressures me to compromise, You offer me something better than anything it can give.

And thank You that even when You correct me, Your purpose is restoration.

Teach me to open Your Word looking for You.

Teach me to speak with You honestly in prayer.

Teach me to recognise Your character until worship becomes the natural response of my heart.

Where I have wandered, I return.

Where I have compromised, give me courage to turn around.

Where I am afraid, teach me to trust.

Where I am weary, help me to hold fast.

And above all, Jesus, keep revealing Yourself to me.

Let me know You, not merely know about You.

Keep me close until faith becomes sight, until the struggle is finished, and until I see the Bright and Morning Star face to face.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

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Scriptures for Further Study

Take time to explore these passages alongside this study. Compare Scripture with Scripture, follow the connections, and allow the Bible to illuminate its own message.

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Grace Encounters | Bible Study Series
Revelation 2: Christ Among His Churches

Continue to Revelation 3: The Promise for Today