First Love

In Revelation chapter two Jesus speaks to His church in Ephesus and begins by listing all the great things about them. They have been faithful, worked hard, held up under persecution and even stayed away from some false teachers. Sounds to most of us like the best church in town! But Jesus then brings up the burden of His heart; they have left their first love for Him.

While it might seem to some that our Lord is just being too hard on them, lets put the relationship into another light. The Bible tells us in several places that the church is the bride of Jesus Christ. He is our bridegroom, waiting at the altar in heaven, with His eyes focused on us. He has loved us and given us his very own life so we can live with Him forever. In His heart is a longing to be with His bride but we He looks down He sees something changing in her heart. That heart that once longed to run to His presence and just spend unmeasured time in His presence is now very busy. She still thinks from time to time of Jesus, but she is also quite involved in a lot of other things. Everything seems so important that soon her schedule is so full that there are only a few moments left for Jesus.

Then He looks and sees His people not only too busy for Him, but also too busy to bother much about telling others about their need for Him. They are holding on so tightly to His love and mercy that it seems very difficult to share it with anyone else! How His heart is longing to see us again totally living for him. What will it take for us to go back to our first love? Will it be just a season of tears at the altar? How will we ever return to where we once were? Jesus tells us so clearly! He does not say; "Feel really bad and cry and pray." He does not add, "Give some more money to the church." He doesn't even say, "Go out and start feeding folks at the soup kitchen." In fact all of these things are fine, but they are only a pale substitute for the "First Love" that Jesus has in mind. Jesus says, just start by doing the things you did at the beginning. Did we used to ask forgiveness of people we have hurt? Lets do that again. Did we once call our friends and family and tell them how Jesus has changed our lives? Lets try again, and not just give up. Have we taken some risks to get out and talk to others we come across in our daily lives about their need for him? Lets get back to work!

Jesus didn't say to wait for an impulse, a tear or a "leading", Jesus meant lets roll up our sleeves and return to the simple things we once did. We all know what those first things are and for each of us it will be something different. That is what is so amazingly clear about our Lord's command. I do not need to do what you once did, or discover some hidden purpose in God's mysterious plan. I just need to remember what I once did and then turn around and begin to do it again! How there is such clarity when we know God's will and then there is that amazing peace as we begin to do it fully again!