“Yet I hold this against you: You have
forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent
and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you
and remove your lampstand from its place.”
This passage is from the letter to the church
at Ephesus in the book of Revelation. According to the letter, the church worked
hard, persevered, had solid doctrine, and endured hardship.
Yet God said if they didn’t correct this one
flaw their ministry would be removed. What makes this one thing so
important? Why is it so critical to
remember our first love?
Maybe it is the fact that love is the
difference between religion and relationship.
Simply following a creed or acting out a system, is powerless.
You lose your first love by forgetting where
you came from. Forgetting who you were
when Christ found you. When that
happens, gratefulness is replaced by pride, and acts of love are replaced by responsibilities.
Whereas we used to worship because we couldn’t
help it, we now grudgingly fulfill our obligations of church attendance and
service.
Have you lost your first love?
Are you following a religious system, or are
you overwhelmed with love for Jesus?
Stop and recall your history. Remember what Christ did for you even though
you were in rebellion. Consider how you felt when you were first redeemed. Then love like that again. Feel and act like
you did when He first saved you.
God doesn’t need your help, He wants your
devotion. Wake up from your stale,
legalistic existence and fall back in love with Him. Be
so full of Love for Jesus that it permeates everything you do…the rest will
take care of itself.
“We
should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to
call us by name, our mouths wide open at His love, bewildered that at this very
moment we are standing on holy ground.”
- Brennan Manning
- Brennan Manning
No comments:
Post a Comment