Pastor's Daily Devotionals Apr-Jun 2009
First Love Lost
Sunday, December 27, 2009 by Ken Johnson
Reference(s):
Revelation 2:4-5
Scripture
4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5 Remember the height from which 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. Revelation 2:4-5, NIV
Observation
The Christ-followers in the church at Ephesus had walked away from their first love, from their initial devotion. Their white-hot passion had cooled. God was speaking to them by His Spirit, exhorting them to stop and recall their initial love, to repent of their spiritual coldness, and to repeat what they did when they were initially overwhelmed by the agape love of God.
In Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus, he mentioned ‘love’ seventeen times. He closed the letter with these words about love: Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love. (Ephesians 6:24, NIV) Through the Spirit, Paul wrote some amazing words about love:
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:17b-19
In Paul’s last day with the leaders of the church of Ephesus, they were still on fire for God. . (Acts 20:29-31; 36-38) And yet, somewhere between Paul’s final visit and the time when John penned Revelation 2:4, the fire died down, their passion fizzled, their “undying love” became seriously ill, they strayed away from the place where they were passionately, wholeheartedly in love with Jesus.
Application
I believe Jesus is calling me to come back to do what is necessary in my head (“remember”) and in my heart (“repent”) to come back to where I was when I first fell head over heels in love with Him.
Prayer
Lord, I want to return to my first love for you.