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MORNING MEDITATION
Glean the Word: Matthew 25:1-13
Glimpse of Glory: "At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom." (v.1)
As we wait for the Lord's return we are to invest everything He has entrusted to our care for the profit of the kingdom of God. We are not to be sitting idly by staring up at the sky, while there is still much work to be done on the earth for His kingdom. While we work however we are to remain watchful. We can be so busy that we, like Israel, can actually miss the time of our visitation (see Luke 19:41-44). "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour" (Matthew 25:13).
The chief responsibility of the ten virgins was to have light so that they could welcome their Bridegroom; to receive Him when He came for them, and be prepared to leave their home to go to be at home with Him forever. The light they were expected to carry is the eternal flame of God's love; a holy light that will never go out, nor suffer from a lack of oil to keep it burning. In The Book of Revelation, we read that the church in Ephesus was commended for its hard work and good deeds, but the Lord declared that in all their service they neglected the most important thing: their First Love devotion to God. Because their flame of love for the Lord had gone out, God would remove their light from its stand (see Revelation 2:1-7). The light they were radiating was no longer pure, it was polluted and tainted and casting a dull shadow over all their work. They were no longer presenting an undiminished view of God to those they were serving, and because of that God was about to snuff them out. The five foolish virgins were in the same sad situation. They had been depending on another source to produce their light, but when the Bridegroom returned they found that they were completely depleted inside. They had not given necessary care to the inner life, so that when the appointed time had come, they were not allowed to enter in to the kingdom. They had shut God out of their life, so He closed the door on them. Let us pray this morning that we will be like the five wise virgins who were prepared to go out and receive their Bridegroom when He arrived. Although they were still weary and slumbering like the foolish five, they had become sleepy because of all the preparation and not because they wasted their time. Let us take time now to repent and return to our First Love with a deep longing and desire to experience the fullness of His abiding life, and not wait until the rebuke comes, like it did for the church of Ephesus or the foolish five virgins, when it will be too late to do anything about it.
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