Exhaustion or no enthusiasm will result in little success. If you are exhausted, you may have anaemia. You are anemic when you do not have enough red blood cells. This makes it difficult for your blood to carry oxygen, causing unusual tiredness and other symptoms.

Anemia is caused either by losing blood faster than the body can replace it, or by not eating enough of the right kinds of food to produce enough Iron. Certain diseases can contribute to this problem. You need to eat a varied, well-balanced diet that contains foods from all the food groups (protein, carbohydrate, fat, fruit, vegetables.) Good sources of Iron include liver, beef, whole grain bread, cereals, eggs and dried fruit.

Red blood cells are made in the bone marrow and circulate in the blood. The body needs iron, vitamin B12 and folic acid to produce more red blood cells. If there is a lack of one or more of these nutrients, anaemia will develop.

Most people are not physically anemic, but many have spiritual anemia. Physical life depends on the blood, and so does spiritual life. We cannot sustain spiritual life with our own blood, but the shed blood of Jesus Christ. For his blood to cleanse us of sin, we must follow his requirements. We must believe in him, repent of our sins and be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We must then be active in our relationship with Jesus.

The spiritual equivalent of anaemia is lukewarmness as described in Revelation chapter three. It basically means no enthusiasm, which leads to a scarcity of Jesus cleansing blood. Jesus sent a message to the church of Laodicea. He informed them that, he knew their deeds, that they were not cold and not hot. He would rather that they were either cold or hot. So because they were lukewarm and not hot or cold, he was going to vomit them out of his mouth!

They said that they were rich and had acquired great wealth, and needed nothing. They did not realize that they were wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. They were physically wealthy, but spiritually, they were starving for the applied blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus flows freely to those who are faithful to him and doing what they can to promote his cause.

The ones who struggle to get to church regularly, and who seldom put forth an effort to do anything for his cause, have anaemic faith. Jesus cleanses the blood of those who are with him. He said that whoever is not with him is against him in Matthew 12:30. When we seldom attend church services or share him with others, he does not know if we are with him or against him. We show him that we are with him, by our zeal to promote his cause.

We are saved by grace through faith, not of ourselves. It is not based on works, according to Ephesians 2:8-9. James says that our faith is made complete by what we do (2:22). He also says that faith without works is dead (2:17 & 26). First John 1:7 states that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin if we walk in the light. This implies that we are at least making an effort to live according to his rules. Those from Laodicea were in danger of being cut off from the blood of Jesus because they had no enthusiasm for his cause, and were doing nothing for him.