Recovering Your First Love

Recovering Your First Love

By Dr. Harold Sala

"Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love." -Revelation 2:4

Do you remember playing “Let’s pretend!” when you were a youngster? Sometimes you fought pirates in the Caribbean, or rode across the prairie, or fought bandits, or sailed the South Seas. For just a minute, let’s pretend we can turn back the calendar 1900 years and walk the streets of ancient Ephesus, one of the most beautiful cities in the Roman world.

Pretend to walk down Main Street from the North. At the end of the street is Celsus Library containing more than 200,000 volumes. On the right is City Hall, and nearby is the great amphitheater seating 25,000 people. And there’s the great temple of Diana, one of the wonders of the ancient world.

Today we can go beyond pretending, based on the archaeological ruins which have been reconstructed as a shadow of the city’s former self. But the ruins let us know that this was a “power city” when Paul visited here long ago with his companion and friend, Barnabas.

When Paul preached, a church was born--a good one, too! From Rome he wrote the letter we know as Ephesians in the New Testament and commended them for their good works. But then a generation passed, and something happened. Their ardor cooled off. They became preoccupied with other things. A generation passed. Then towards the end of the first century, John, on the Isle of Patmos, had a vision, and in this vision God spoke to this very church. In spite of what was still good--and there were many things in that category--He chided, “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love” (Revelation 2:4).

Could that be said today of many churches, perhaps the one you attend? A generation ago, it was a growing, exciting place to be; but today the doors are closed on Sunday evening--can’t get the crowd out. The mid-week prayer meeting went out in the 60s, and things are boringly predictable. Could the fact we’ve lost our first love account for the fact that less than half the people who own Bibles ever read them? That fewer than 1 in 20 ever share their faith with anyone? That so many mission organizations are downsizing because they are faced with insufficient funds?

But more than that, could it explain why we as individuals sometimes struggle with issues which shouldn’t really trouble us? I’m thinking of a young woman who wrote, telling of reversals in her personal life, and then added, “I’m losing my faith--what I have left of it.”

What is first love? Certifying the obvious, first love is that deep, intoxicating devotion to Jesus Christ which resulted from knowing your sins were forgiven and that you were redeemed with the blood of the Lamb. It was the warmth of devotion you first had when you were converted when you couldn’t stay away from Bible study or worship, when you read the Bible for “ten minutes” and discovered an hour had gone by.

How do we recover what we’ve lost today? The way back is found in three words:

1. Remember. 2. Repent. 3. Return. It’s just that simple. You’ll find the formula in the second chapter of the Revelation--the last book in the New Testament. Remember, repent, return.

A final thought. You don’t have to live with lukewarmness or fear that you have gone too far to come back. Long ago God said, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). The fact is that God wants you to walk with Him. The fire can be rekindled. You don’t have to pretend.

**Permission to print the above article is hereby granted by Guidelines, Inc.**

#1 Make Money Online - [click here]