Begin with 2 minutes of silence and stillness before God.

Happy Tuesday, Venture Family! I don’t know about y’all, but the more I read through the book of Revelation, the more I am able to see the promise and power of the Lord! Let’s dive into the promises that God has for us in today’s passages of scripture, Revelation 14:12-16. Verse 12 says, “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus”. I don’t know if you know this, but when scripture uses the word “saint” in this context, it’s talking about anyone who is a follower of Jesus Christ! That’s you and me! And we are told that as followers of Jesus, our rest and assurance come from keeping the commandments of God and our faith in Jesus! We live in a world that doesn’t want us to follow Jesus and we can sometimes be pulled away because of business and temptation. How do we fight against this? The more we prioritize prayer and spending time in scripture and biblical community, the more rest and endurance our souls will be able to experience.

If you skip down to verses 14-16, you’ll see why this endurance is so important! This passage of scripture describes Jesus, with a crown of gold, seated on a white cloud, coming down to reap His harvest. The end of verse 15 says,” ...for the hour to reap has come, the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” This is why our endurance and patience are so important. Because Jesus is coming back for His church, for His people! It can be easy to look around at all the pain, injustice, and brokenness in this world and say, “What’s the point”? But hope is not lost. He is waiting. He is giving His people time to be filled or “fully ripened” by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus wants us to be ready for Him. Not in the sense that we obsess over trying to decode every word that is written in this final book or that we cut ourselves off from anyone who doesn’t believe what this book is even saying. He wants us to fully seek Him. He wants to abide in Him and be desperate for His presence. Are you desperate for the presence of God? Are you dependent on scripture? Our endurance comes from being tethered to God through prayer, being in His Word, and gathering with other believers! He has given us all that we need to take heart, have courage, and be ready for the day that He comes to collect His harvest!

Take 2 minutes to reflect in silence.

Reflection:

• After reading this chapter, what truth might the Lord have for you? What is He showing you in scripture that you didn’t see before?
• What are daily disciplines that we can practice to build up spiritual endurance?
• Prayer: Dear Lord, thank You for your ultimate power over evil. Not only are You powerful, but You are also good. Because I know You are good, I can trust that You will come back for Your Church. Help me to have endurance and strength. In Jesus name, amen.

Family Devo: Revelation 14

By: Paige Russum

When partnering with your family to know, love, and follow Jesus, we strive to create and share content filtered by the Head-Heart-Hands model.   

Head: the knowledge of God and His Word | Heart: the personal connection from scripture | Hands: a missional mindset  

Head

In Revelation 14, John continues talking about His vision. This part of the vision isn’t about the evil we may face like the previous chapter, but it focuses on our hope of eternity if we persevere through the trials of life.  

The chapter starts by talking about a lion on Mount Zion. Who might John be referring to that is mighty like a LION? It is Jesus! He is standing tall and victorious and ready to bring something amazing for his people. The chapter continues to discuss 144,000 people, a choir, three angels and a harvest of the Earth. All those represent other things like we talked about yesterday, but a very important principle is found in verse 12. It says, “Meanwhile, the saints stand passionately patient, keeping God’s commands, staying faithful to Jesus (The Message).” That means that even with all the other things that may distract us, we have to work diligently to focus on God and do what He wants us to do. If we stay faithful, we will be rewarded! 

Heart

As we have been seeing, Revelation can be a hard chapter to read when John has such extraordinary visions. They can be difficult to understand and interpret. Two things we know for sure are that God wants us to remain faithful to Him, even in difficult circumstances, and that He will be victorious. When you experience hard circumstances, do you rely on God? If your answer is “not always”, what can you do to improve that relationship? None of us are perfect and we could all do better, but learning that He WANTS us to seek help from Him is SO important. 

Hands

Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank You for being our friend and Savior. Help us to follow You with all our hearts and be a part of Your beautiful harvest. May our lives be a reflection of Your love, and may we bring joy to Your heart. In Your name, we pray. Amen.