POOR GOD!
Poor God, you ask? He's rich! He created everything. He owns the continents, the stars and sun: the universe. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills! God isn't poor!
Perhaps you need to think about His being poor in a different context, not in the realm of finances, real estate or possessions. Consider His heart! God IS poor, poor in heart. Look at what He says:
"Behold, I stand and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me." Revelation 3:20.
Jesus says this about the church at Laodicea. A church bearing Jesus' name should certainly welcome Him with open arms. Yet, by His own description Jesus is standing outside the door that is firmly closed. He is knocking and knocking, apparently also calling out to anyone inside who will come to the door and open it.
Thus far His pleas have been in vain. His is unrequited love for a people who turn a deaf ear to His voice and have already secured the door lest He come in uninvited. Poor poor Jesus. The very ones for whom He gave his life on the cross at Calvary and who give lip service to His name want nothing to do with Him!
In fact, Jesus describes His Church as thinking she is rich and in want of nothing. Little does she see how miserable and poor and blind and naked she really is. She needs to buy gold refined by fire so she can become truly rich. She needs to purchase white garments to clothe her naked body. She needs to buy eye salve to heal her vision so she can see clearly once again.
From whom should she buy those things? Jesus says she must get them from Him. Yet, Jesus is not allowed inside the building of the Church. The very One, the only One who can cure her disease and supply her lacks is the same One the Church shuns and to whom she turns a deaf ear.
The Church of today, the last days, believes she is rich and needs nothing more. What she says is correct by her method of evaluation. She has lovely buildings with the latest facilities like gymnasiums, coffee bars, hi-tech accessories in Sunday School and the sanctuary, and great acoustics for the praise team. Her people drive nice cars, live in large houses with beautiful furnishings, eat very well, have bountiful wardrobes and bright children. Her pastors are articulate, well-educated, spontaneous, gregarious, and well-paid. What more could she ask?
And yet, Jesus says she is poor, naked and blind! She needs to buy gold from Him, white garments of purity and eye salve to cure her feeble eyesight. It is evident from the discrepancies between Jesus' knowledge of her and what the Church perceives about herself that the Church is in trouble.
"Faithful are the wounds of a friend [who corrects out of love and concern]. But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful [because they serve his hidden agenda]." Proverbs 27:6 [Amplified].
Jesus tells the church at Laodicea:
"Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent." Revelation 3:19.
He loves her, but she doesn't love Him! Her love has grown cold. It's as simple and as serious as that! It is out of His heart of love for her that Jesus calls Laodicea to repentance.
She must repent for depending on everything except Jesus. She must repent because of her idolatry: loving things and traditions and putting them before God. Repent for having a form of godliness without having the power of the Holy Spirit baptism. Repent of her failure to be on fire with the Gospel that dispels evil and gives Light to a dying world.
People feel sorry for those who have been shunned by their lovers. They feel badly for parents whose children have turned on them and treated them wickedly. But what about God? His heart hurts, too.
Comfort Him with your love. Tell Him how much you love Him. Walk in His Baptism. Weep with Him over souls, especially those of His Church...and pray for revival. The Church needs to wake up! She needs to repent!