Read: Revelation 11

How do I measure up?  What does God think of me? How do I know if I am doing OK?

One of the annoying things about modern life is the confirmation email/text from a supplier after I have just bought something – with the added ‘how did we do? question, inviting feedback on the company’s performance’.  I have to confess that I very often ignore the request, thinking – well if you haven’t measured up, I’ll certainly let you know!  Is that right?  Or should I give them honest feedback to enable them to measure my experience against their established company standards?

In my own working life, I often need to account for my actions.  A specific task or yearly review…  I need to reflect on things I do well, and where I feel I do not achieve a good result.  There will be 2 or 3 people who will report on how they feel I have done, to provide a more objective view.  Sometimes a sobering moment, often a great encouragement.  In my mission and ministry, I should not be afraid of honest assessment of my work.  Today’s passage in Revelation 11 takes this to another level!

Revelation 11 describes two witnesses, whose task it is to assess the ‘performance’ of the church and of each individual worshipper:  whether the olive trees and the lampstands represent individual people or the entire Holy Spirit of God is still open to debate. However it may be these witnesses are to measure the temple (God’s earthly dwelling).  ‘Measure’, here, could mean counting or it could mean establishing and securing God’s dwelling on earth. The outer court is to be rejected because it is not part of the original plan for God’s temple, but added in later, and what was worshipped there is not to God’s original standard.  The temple and worshippers are measured (established) against God’s standards, his blueprint for his place on earth; is the temple centred and focused on Christ? Does it faithfully reflect Christ in worship and mission?  The worshippers themselves are to be measured by the same criteria.  God’s provision for the witnesses is also important; so few to measure such a vast temple?  They may be few in number, but they are sufficient according to God’s measure and God will have full control of, make provision for and lovingly acknowledge his faithful witnesses.

So, I can be certain that when God causes my work to be measured, he is establishing and securing my mission.  Sometimes as David found (1 Chronicles 28) God’s assessment means that something I had set my heart on to do for God goes to another, because I am not the right person to carry them out (David was not to build the temple, though God had given him the ‘blueprint’ for it, because David was a warrior and had shed blood.  It would be Solomon, David’s son, who would carry this mission).  This surely should be a huge encouragement to me, even when the witness of God’s Holy Spirit reports failure or shortcomings.  Working from his blueprint I can find comfort and energy to carry on.