For fifteen years Jim Fixx, author of the 1978 bestseller, The Complete Book of Running, ran eighty miles a week. He appeared to be in tip-top shape. It didn't seem possible that a man his age could be in better condition. Yet at age fifty-two, Fixx died of a massive heart attack while running alone on a Vermont road. His wife, Alice, later said she was certain that Fixx had no idea he suffered from a heart problem. Why? Because he refused to get regular checkups. After Jim Fixx's death, doctors speculated that his heart was so strong he may not have had the telltale chest pains or shortness of breath that usually signal arterial heart disease. (Today in the Word, May, 1990, MBI, p. 7.) He seemed so healthy on the outside that he never looked deeper to uncover the problem that would take his life.

In the same way, the true spiritual condition of our hearts can be covered up by all of the wealth and resources and comforts we possess and experience. Our outward comfort and success can keep us from volunteering for a spiritual checkup. If Jesus did an assessment of your heart, your spiritual center, what would he find?

The city had a lot of resources, but it did not have its own water supply. Hot water was piped from the hot springs in Hierapolis. Cold water came from Colosse. Both were several miles away. But by the time it got to Laodicea, both the hot and cold water was lukewarm. Hot water was useful, especially for medicinal purposes. Cold water was useful - it was refreshing to drink. But lukewarm water was despised. The Laodiceans complained about the lukewarm water. Jesus compared the Laodicean church to the lukewarm water that they despised. Their actions and lifestyles revealed that they were only partially loyal to him, and so they disgusted him. He was unable to use them and bless them like he wanted to.

What do your deeds and actions and overall lifestyle reveal about the level of your loyalty to Jesus? And Jesus knows that if he does not have leadership over your money and possessions, he does not have mastery and leadership over your heart. It is pretty much that simple.

Their city boasted of a thriving banking center, a textile and clothing industry, and a widely-used eye treatment. They had plenty of money, fine clothing, and good medical facilities and treatments. They thought they had everything they needed, but they were blinded to their true spiritual condition. They were trusting in their comfortable lifestyles rather than trusting in God.

We are in danger of having the same heart condition as the Laodicean church. When we are not forced by circumstances to trust in God, it is very easy to drift. When we stop trusting him, we stop pleasing him and being loyal to him - until we run into a situation in which we are in over our heads. Then we return to him. Our wealth and comforts and privileges cause us to be arrogant, and times of need and pain cause us to become humble. And "God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6).

Gold / money / possessions, fine clothing, and good medicine were available to them, but Jesus counseled them to come to him for what they really needed - spiritual life, purity, peace, true insight, hope, genuine confidence (vs. 18).

Invite Jesus to the table in your heart and life. Be renewed in your trust in and loyalty to him. Quit pushing him aside as though you don't need him, as though you already have all you need in your resources and possessions. It what areas have you shut him out of your life - finances, relationships, failure to give him control of your time and activities, unwillingness to speak up for him, failure to follow his moral principles, unwillingness to trust in him because of your self-sufficiency?

He loves you - that is why he is having this conversation with you right now (vs. 19). He invites you to return to him, no matter what you've done, no matter how far away you have wandered (vs. 20). He wants to be your Lord, your leader, your best friend. Whether or not Jesus has anything to do with the nuts and bolts of our lives has everything to do with our response to him - will we respond with a humble, repentant, contrite heart or with arrogance and pride and self-sufficiency?

By the way, the city of Laodicea no longer exists. They were arrogant and self-sufficient, and saw no end to their wealth, and they no longer exist. None of our comforts, privileges and wealth will last forever. But life that lasts is found in Christ.