My First Love

Do you remember what it was like to be in love for the first time?  How everything seemed so new and exciting?  How you couldn't stop thinking about that one person?  How every time you saw them, your heart dropped into your stomach with excitement?  Do you remember how things that weren't even related to your new relationship seemed brighter and more beautiful?  You probably could have written bad poetry about the crumbs on the kitchen table had you been asked.

What happened?

Most people would probably answer, in some form, that life got in the way.  Things got complicated.  It just didn't work out.  You fell out of love.

I love God.  But often times, when I'm not careful, life gets in the way.

It's not necessarily what you may expect.  Granted, sometimes it is the busy schedule or the flashy distractions that draw from my time with God, but "life" can come in other forms.  Sometimes I just get too caught up in worrying about my own faith.  Am I doing this right?  Can I push myself more in this area?  Have I read my Bible today?  What is the proper relationship between faith and works?  How does the trinity work?  Did I spend enough time with God?  The list goes on and on.

Just like you and I, the church of Ephesus had their own list of spiritual worries and accomplishments.  In Revelations, God tells them, "I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance.  I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be the apostles but are not, and have found them false.  You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary" (Revelations 2:2-3).

The Ephesians have been fighting their spiritual battle.  We have been fighting ours.  God has seen their work and noted that it is good.  God will see our work and, hopefully, note that it is good as well.  But God has one more thing to say to the Ephesians, one more thing to say to us.

"Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first" (Revelations 2:4).

Somewhere along the way, life happened and without us noticing, we forgot our first love.  Do you remember it?  The amazement that struck you when you realized the immensity of what Jesus Christ had done on the cross?  The warmth you felt when you drew near to God, the amazement that filled you when you sat in His presence?  Remember how His power washed over you, as though it were tangibly spreading through your limbs?

Do you remember your first love?

Let us not forget where it all began.  Life will happen.  Things will get hard.  But let us continually return to the love we had at first.  Let us ask the Lord to soften our hearts to the glory of all that He is.  Let us ask him for a new heart and a new spirit, as He once promised us.

Let us reflect on the strength with which eternal life first broke death's power over us.  Let us remember the freedom we felt when our chains were first removed.

Let us recall the love we first had so that we might forsake it no longer.