“FIRST LOVE”

“You have left your first love.”

Revelation 2:4

I have always had a fascination with this mysterious book called Revelation. It is the record of God revealing the glory of Jesus and of future events on the world calendar. Which, by the way, only He knows and controls! One of the most amazing revelations in the book is in His letter to the church at Ephesus. (and Burlington) He commends them for their faithfulness, endurance during persecution, doctrinal purity and devoted service to Him. Pretty good performance review wouldn’t you say? However, He changes tone as He says “I have something against you, in that you have left your first love”. Please don’t misunderstand, they still loved Jesus. A lot. No one would serve selflessly as they did, suffer for Him as they did and stand for truth as they did if they did not love Him greatly. But, there is a difference between even devoted love and “first love”. First love is the excited, passionate, heart moving love we experience when we first meet someone and “fall in love head over heels” with them. You lay awake at night thinking of them. You sacrifice greatly to be near them. There is a romantic passion in “first love”. It is the kind of stuff that love songs are written about. Why, pray tell, would the Creator of the universe be bothered by the fact that I don’t have this “first love” over Him? As long as I obey His Word, serve Him faithfully and stand for truth why should He care about me being breathlessly crazy in love with Him? The Revelation? Because He has never lost the “first love” that He has for me. Can you grasp this? Is this not what scripture reveals here? His love for me is not a “duty love”. It is an excited, heart felt, passionate love. That is why the next verse says, “remember” and “return”. How many people have told me through the years with a sense of pain of losing the “first love” that they shared with their sweethearts at the beginning of their relationship years ago. How the excitement had slowly faded into repetition. They looked back longed to “go back” to the joy of “first love”. Rare is the couple that can keep “first love” alive through the years. How wonderful when it happens!  Apply that to our relationship with Jesus Christ. How wonderful it was when we first met Him! How exciting to feel His Holy Spirit and to hear His voice! Sadly, over time the “new wears off” and it no longer stuns us to hear about the cross and His great love for us. We still believe. We still serve. But, something we had is missing. Its called “first love”. The good news? He is calling His own back to their original passion for Him! Why not? Why not be crazy in love with the one who died for you and loves you like no one ever has? No one! Just as a cold marriage can come alive again, a cold heart can once again burn with a love for Christ that He is worthy of!

Dearest Jesus, how did I get so far away from you? How did it become so mechanical? Forgive me and set my heart on fire for you again. Bring me back to where we used to be.