Forsaking Your First Love

Every year, Daniel and I follow a daily Bible reading plan that takes us through the whole Bible in a year. We are finishing up the book of Revelation this month. The book begins with Christ giving a message to the churches at the time, with messages of encouragement but also warning.

Revelation 2:4:  Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.

With one church, Christ warns them that they have lost their first love. And isn't that easy to do? When we first become believers, first get baptized, we are so excited. The difficulty of life can wear us down. It can make us a little jaded. It can make us feel too busy to go to church or do good. It's so easy to get wrapped up in all the physical people and things around us. 

Our first love should always be for God and Christ. Whatever else we love in life, we can't let it diminish our love for God. In the Bible, God even uses the term adultery to refer to His people who have forsaken Him. That's how serious it is! 

Forsaking your first love (GOD) can be dangerously easy to do. We can't see Him or hear Him. He doesn't yell at us if we don't listen. Of course, we have His word but only if we chose to read it. But the amazing thing is that He is always calling to us to Him. 

I know I've been feeling like I've lost a little of that first love. I still love God and I still read the Bible and go to church and do all the things I am supposed to do, but it can feel mechanical. We all slip there sometimes but we need to get back! I need to rejuvenate my first love, and if you are in that place too, so do you!

I thought this picture was a great illustration of this. We are looking at this beautiful ocean but the forest and the rain on the window are blocking our view. Life can be that way. The cares of this world, our spouses, our kids, our friends can cloud our love for our Creator. They are all good things but they can't be our first love. God wants to be first in our hearts. 

So if you are feeling in a rut I encourage you to reach out. Reach out to me, reach out to a close friend, but most importantly reach out to God. He longs to hear our prayers. He longs for us to maintain our first love. Start 2017 with a rejuvenated love for the Creator of all!