Give me a pure and faithful heart Lord, a hunger to know who
You are, and a passion to live in the love You have given me. Cause me to
burn with Your fire, fill me with holy desire to stand in Your grace, forever
embracing You Jesus. Give me a pure and faithful heart for You, my King.
The Lord created us with His own hands. His banner over us
is love.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have
everlasting life. God loves us so much that even before we were born, He gave
up His only Son to die for us, so we could be with Him eternally. God wants us
with Him forever, starting now.
When we asked Jesus into our hearts, we were made whole
again. He washed us and made us clean. Sometimes, after a while, we lose that
cleanliness. Dirt and sweat get in the picture. We need that shower again. We
sometimes lose that honeymoon feeling so our spiritual life needs a pick-me-up,
a refreshing. Our feelings for Jesus are not as fervent as they use to be. We
tend to forget what Jesus has done for us in the past or what He is doing for us now. We even forget to
think of what He will do for us, the promises that He has given. The fire in
our heart has gone down. Instead of a blaze of burning desire to know and be
with God, there’s just a little ember flickering somewhere. Ask God to light
that fire, to rekindle that desire again. Make Jesus your first priority. Put
the Lord first in everything, above all. Exodus 20:3 says Thou shalt have no
other gods before Me. Other gods include work, money, spouses, children,
hobbies… whatever you value more than the Lord. Not putting Him first is a sin,
it is turning and stepping away from Him.
Acts 3:19-20 Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your
sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the
presence of the Lord; And He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached
unto you. When we let our fire die down, that means we are not tending to the
fire. We are not feeding it with the fuel it needs. We are not taking care of
what needs to be taken care of. If the fire dies, we have no heat, we will get
cold, and the light will disappear. If the fire dies, it shows we are not
paying attention to a very important part of our life. God says to seek Him
first. He is our fire, our Love; the Holy Spirit is the oil for the fire. God’s
Word is the fuel. it feeds and rekindles that burning desire and keeps the fire
going strong.
We need to repent, ask forgiveness for not paying attention
to Him as much as we should, for getting our eyes focused on other things. Turn
back to God so He can wipe the slate clean again and get all the old ashes out
of the way that are smothering the fire so it can breathe and become flaming
hot again. God can refuel that burning desire for Him, but you have to do your
part and turn back to Him.
Revelation 2:4-5 But I have this against you: You have
abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then how far you have fallen;
repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and
remove your lampstand from its place--unless you repent. The Ephesians did
God’s work and heard His Word so often that they grew tired of hearing it or
became dull of hearing. They were born again, hardworking, had good morals,
didn’t sin, but God’s Word was just there. They lost their first love. After
the honeymoon, the excitement wore off, now it’s just a fact of life. It is
comfortable, non-appreciative. It is just there. Jesus told them to repent.
Remember where you used to be with Jesus, how excited you
were. God doesn’t want us to grow cold. When you fell in love for the first
time, that’s all you could think about, from sunrise to sunset. The sky was
always blue, that rain was sweet, flowers were gorgeous, the stars were so
bright and beautiful, but somewhere down the line the sky turned a little
dingier. His blessings go unnoticed.
Make sure to fill your lamp with God’s Holy Oil. Very first
thing in the morning, seek His face, pray and worship Him. Spending extra time
with God and paying more attention to His Word will revive your relationship
again. Plan time to become closer to Him, to get to know Him more. Spending
time with the Lord can bring revival to your soul, and that fire can spread to
others. Seek that second honeymoon with Him.
Remember the heights you have fallen from. You can climb to
that height again and reach even higher goals with the Lord. Remember how you
were so excited and expecting to see what God had for you around the corner?
You were looking for something from Him every day. You can have that again, and
more. Let your prayers be full of faith.
Psalm 34:18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a
broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. A broken heart,
contrite spirit is destroyed, hurt, and full of sorrow, whether it be from
tragedy or sin of another, or his own sin. This spirit cries out to the
Lord. This is a heart that the Lord can work with and grow near to.
Rev 2:7 … To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the
tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. To those of us who
overcome our sins by repenting, asking forgiveness, forgiving others, we have
the right to eat from the tree of life, we can feed on the Word of God. When we
are born again, we are given eternal life. Those that have known the Lord for
years can still repent, live a more vital life and come back to their first
love with God’s Word. His Word brings life because it is Life.
We can come back to how it was when we first gave our heart
to Jesus. Nothing came between us. Overtime, we might have lost some of that
excitement and love. Do you still read your Bible for hours daily? Do you look
for answers in the Bible and trust every Word written? We use to sing praises
to Him all day long and see His beauty in everything around. We were always
excited to go to church and hear His Word, to stand in His streams of
refreshing living waters. Soaking in His presence was a daily event. Hearing the Lord’s voice was so easy and seeing His works were so evident. We had
no doubt that every prayer we prayed would be answered in time because our
faith was so great. We knew every blessing, great or small, came for the Father
of Lights. Every time we heard the name Jesus, our ears would perk up and our
heart would automatically jump with joy.
Things pertaining to the Lord get set aside when we lose that first love.
Soon, Sunday school is not important, and we walk into church during song
service. Prayer meetings aren’t a priority because we have other things to do
during that time. When we were first born, we couldn’t wait to attend all of
these things the Lord blessed us with, no matter how far the drive was. Seeking
the comfort of our bodies now instead of the prosperity of our soul comes
first.
The world used to think you were a nut for going to church
all the time, but it was that burning love and desire to be with Christ 24
hours a day that kept you going back. It was a blazing love for the Lord. How
high is that blaze now? How many songs do you have in your heart now compared
to then? Is your first love stronger or has it grown weaker?
We used to listen to the preacher hanging on every word with
joy, excitement and expectancy. But somewhere along that line, that excitement
was lost. We were hungry for God’s Word then. We can get too full of the world
and too busy to have room for God’s Word. Sometimes our watches or lunch plans
get in the way of hearing a message straight from God Himself. Our spiritual
ears can close up after a while. We could have been in fellowship with Jesus
that whole time, but our minds were somewhere else. Why? Because we lost our
first love. Other things to do first and not enough time are two excuses. Seeking God’s face in prayer was continual, now we rely on our self for the
answer. We now have a quick one minute prayer instead of our intense,
compassionate one hour or more conversation with our Heavenly Father. A couple
scriptures will do for the day, if any, instead of the in-depth study we used to
have with the Lord. We used to pray over difficulties, now the worry has crept
in.
Where is our first love? Did we outgrow it? Are we much
wiser now? Have we grown older and richer? Maybe in some ways, but not
spiritually. There is a void in our life that only God can fill. No matter how
much we have now, we had much more when we came to know the Lord. We were fully
engulfed in His grace and love, but now we’ve stepped outside a little bit, or
maybe a whole lot. Have we given up a little time with God to do something
else? Or have we given up something else to be with God? Do we talk about where
we are going in Christ?
1 Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I
am chief. We need to remember where Jesus brought us from and thank Him daily
for this. We were nothing but a sinner bound for hell. If we keep remembering
God’s grace and going back to the Cross, we will be led back to our first love.
At times, we get caught up doing for Christ instead of
seeking Him. Like 10:40-42 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she
went up to him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to
serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha,
Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is
necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from
her.” Martha was busy worried about other things first, while Mary knew where
the good stuff was. She wanted to be in the presence of Jesus. He was her first
love. Don't end up being a Martha, doing what you think is important, putting tasks before the Lord. Work needs to be done, but we can be with the Lord while tending to these matters.
We must get back to our prayer closet to meet with our
Heavenly Father. Forget religion and tradition, get back to the basics of love-
which is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Remember the Cross, remember the
grace He gave. The more we sit near Him, the more we grow to love Him.
James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Repent daily for not giving Him enough time. If God wasn’t in your every
thought, you didn’t give Him enough time. Repent for disobedience. Every breath
comes from God, why not give it back to Him?
Our love to Christ depends on our nearness to Him. Psalm
42:7 Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and
Your waves have rolled over me. The depths of your soul should cry out to the
depths of His. Getting to know the Lord can do nothing but benefit you. Immerse
yourself in the Living Waters, plunge into and remain in His presence. The more we seek Him, the more we recognize and receive from Him.
A heart that is close to God can’t help but be on fire for Him,
full of His love and energy. Going weeks and months without personal contact
with Him is not staying near to Him. You have moved away, putting other things
first. If you lose your fist love, you lose purity towards your first love. You
will not stay true to that love. Love and purity go hand and hand together. The
Lord chastises His children when they are impure. Deuteronomy 8:5 Know
then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God
disciplines you. Job 5:17 Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not
despise the discipline of the Almighty.
When you are close to the Lord, you are in earshot of His
voice, therefore hearing Him clearly unless you are focused on something else.
It is very hard to get out of the will of God when you are in His presence and
hearing His voice. Stay in the Holy of Holies with your Father, grow in the
knowledge and wisdom He gives you. Constantly return to your prayer closet,
stay under his grace, stay in fellowship with the Lord. Sit at the feet of
Jesus Christ and fall in love again.
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is
the first commandment. Mark 12:30. Since the Lord put this as the first
commandment, it is probably the most important one. He tells us this for a
reason. God knows if we do this, we will stay close to Him, we will be in His
will and the devil can’t touch us there. We are safe in God’s hands. We are the
Lord’s children. God is love, we are the children of Love.
Let’s not let Jesus hold anything against us, let us not
forsake our first love.
