SEVENSample

TITLE: Nineveh

Theme: Mercy & Repentance

Song & Lyric: Nineveh: “Holy Spirit, help me see where there is Nineveh in me”

Scriptures:

• Revelation 3:1-6 (NIV)
• Romans 2:4 (NLT)

Devotional:

“Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent.” - Revelation 3:2-3a(ESV)

Throughout the whole of Scripture, there is a tangible, easily seen, yet unfortunate motif or reoccurrence: people forget the goodness of God. They rebel against His Word, they turn to idols of one kind or another, and they place their trust in themselves or others—rather than in Him. In other words, they end up forsaking His fellowship and goodness, resisting His ways and rejecting His love.

In the midst of this, however, God calls people to repentance with the goal that they would see restoration to and in Him. This call to repentance, then, can be understood as God’s kindness. In fact, Scripture states that it is specifically God’s kindness that leads us toward repentance (Romans 2:4). In this passage found in Revelation, the church of Sardis is admonished and encouraged to “strengthen what remains.” Often our battles in this life are not with exterior circumstances, people, or situations as much as we might think. Instead, many of them are the battles of the soul: the temptation to withhold from God, the urge to forget or forsake him. This is why a prayer like, ‘Holy Spirit, help me see where there is Nineveh in me' can be such a powerful expression of faith and trust in Christ. Nineveh was a city in the Old Testament that was incredibly powerful, but equally wicked and unjust. In God’s kindness He offered these people redemption and restoration through repentance. In this ‘Nineveh’ prayer, the aim is that by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit we would be enabled to see the areas of our lives that are resistant to God, and by doing so, we would strengthen what remains of our faith by repenting of what should not remain in us. As we humbly repent and confidently remain in Christ, God quickens our hearts to learn this posture and rhythm. And in doing so, we are not without promise. In the verses that follow Jesus says to those who overcome: I will never blot their names out of the book of life.

May we have the eyes to see the parts of our lives that are resistant to the ways of God, and hearts that humbly seek to remain in Him all of our days—He promises to keep us.