WHO IS YOUR FIRST LOVE ?
I desire to be your first love. I desire to have you be encompassed and embraced in My love…to know Me…to seek Me…to follow after Me with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your being. This is what I would desire of you, My people.
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first…. (Rev. 2:4,5 NIV)
Who is your first love?
Is it your church?
Your career?
Your life at home?
Are these things dear?
How about your family?
Your friends?
The things you buy?
The things you spend?
Who is your first love?
Is it Him?
Do you give your all for everything
but…
what truly matters…
is it Him?
He loves you dearly.
It cost His life.
Are you willing
to give back even a mite
of who you are
for who He is?
Who is your first love?
Is it Him?
The Lord wants us to repent of everything that hinders us from holding onto Jesus and a first love relationship with Him. We need to repent from all distractions, idols, desires for things, persons or personalities that sidetrack us from Him. God longs for and earnestly desires our companionship. He longs to have a deep love relationship with us.
We are to hold no other above our relationship with God. This includes our love of "self." The 70s "Me Generation" philosophy reached its maturity in the 80s and is continuing into the 90s. As we enter the new century, will we continue? The Lord wants us to repent of our "self" idolatry and turn to Him. He has called us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. (Mark 8:34) He desires that we love Him with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. When we do these two things, we will have fulfilled all the commandments and the law. (Matthew 22:37-40)
Our Testimony
When you were first a Christian, what was your life like? Were you filled with peace, joy, and a desire for God and other Christians?
When I was saved, I received a peace that I had not known before. As I started reading and learning from the Bible, I noticed that I simply believed what it said. When I prayed, things would happen. I once asked God to stop the rain instantaneously and it did! I simply believed the verses "…Ask and it will be given to you…" (Luke 11:9 NIV) and "…anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these…"(John 14:12 NIV)
I used to sing songs of praise to God all the time. It was so natural. Often I would sing a praise or a chorus to the Lord as I was walking to my next class or activity. I was so enthralled with the Lord and full of His joy.
I also enjoyed meeting with other Christians. I loved going to Bible studies and fellowshipping with the saints. It was a special blessing to meet someone and find out he or she was a Christian. Sometimes we would talk for hours about the Lord.
Not only was I excited about being with other Christians but I was also eager to learn about God. I would delve into the scriptures for hours. I remember when I first learned about spending time with the Lord from my older brother. He told me that I needed to spend time reading the Bible and praying. I started with one minute a day. I figured that during that time I could read one chapter of the Bible and pray. It wasn't long before I desired to spend an hour with Him.
If someone had told me that I would do all these things after I became a Christian, I wouldn't have believed it. Yet all these things happened at the beginning of my walk with the Lord. I believe it was similar for many of us.
The scripture says, "…Repent and do the things you did at first…." (Revelation 2:5 NIV) Are we doing these things? Are we praising the Lord naturally? Are we longing for Him? Are we desiring Bible study and fellowship with other Christians? Do we desire intimacy and time alone with the Lord? Do we desire whatever else the Lord did in our lives at first? Are we doing those things now?
As young Christians we were ignorant but we had zeal. There was new life and everyone around us knew it. That is why many of us were called "Jesus freaks”. Have we let that die? Have we grown cold in our relationship with the Lord? If so, ask Him to fan the flames of that relationship you once had with Him. Ask Him to fill you completely with Himself again. Ask Him to revitalize you and fill you with His Spirit. Ask Him to help you pursue and stir up the gifts within and return to your first love. (2 Tim. 1:6, Rev. 2:4)
Return to God
If there is sin in your life, repent so you can be clean and enter into this intimacy with the Lord that He longs for. For He longs to have a relationship with you. He longs to have a deep love relationship that is far greater than any good marriage between husband and wife. He desires to have a spiritual marriage relationship with us. We are engaged on this earth to Jesus. We are the bride of Christ and that marriage will be consummated when the Lord returns.
Are we ready? Are we spotless? Are we blameless before Him? Are we wearing our white robes of righteousness or have we become spotted with this world? Have we been caught up in the things and cares of this life? Have we let our relationship with Jesus "slide?"
Turn away from those things that have pulled you away from your relationship with Jesus and renew your relationship with Him. For the whole purpose of our lives is to know Him and have relationship with Him. This is eternal life to know God and Jesus Christ, His Son. (John 17:3)