We need to get back to our first love. We need to get back to Jesus.
I'll admit it: getting back to the bustling busyness of life - it's demands, distractions, worldliness, news, and events - has taken away time, precious time, that lately seems to be too much time, that is slipping away too quickly. The time to slow down, breathe, refocus, and just.. be still seems to be impossible nowadays with all the chaos this world is spinning into... and it just doesn't seem to stop!
I want to talk about this today, actually, I need to talk about this today because I really have it on my heart to get back to being with Jesus. To really knuckle down into His Word, break bread, pray, worship, and spend time just being still with Him. Put down the phone. Switch off the TV. Turn off your emails. And open the Book - the never-changing, alive, eternally-satisfying God-breathed Word that never fails to reel you in, delicately, eagerly, back to Jesus Who is the Word - our first love, our perfect love, Love Himself.
I remember a time when I first properly started reading my Bible. I was 18 years old and had a strong desire to really get to know God personally. He led me into a time of spiritual growth and revelation of Who He is, and it was during this time when I actually started Wholehearted. But, I'll never forget the first time reading Romans, Ephesians, or Hebrews. The initial feeling I had was as if I had been given a rare gem that was specifically made for me. It felt like receiving a map to escape the maze, or the answers to left out questions in an exam. I could also compare it to meeting your first love - the bubbly leap of excitement when you see them, the heart squeeze of pure love when you're with them, and the complete desire of just wanting to be with them all the time. I felt all these things and more because nothing satisfies and fills like the Word of God! Amen.
And then, slowly, I stopped... a couple of days passed, then a week, and as time with Jesus grew shorter, so did my patience. My temper shortened, my peace left, and my joy diminished. I was scrambling to try and fix all my problems, my responsibilities, my situations, that I became starved of what really matters - Jesus. I became desolate, inward, vulnerable, and afraid. I know this because when I opened up His Word again, I felt like I was a desert receiving a flood of rain. It felt like that relaxed sigh after a long day, that breath of crisp air in the mountains, or that bottle of water after a tough run. I couldn't help but want to drink more and more of His Word. I realised how much I need Him and friend, life is a whole lot lighter when Jesus is at the centre.
I know your industry and activities, laborious toil and trouble, and your patient endurance, and how you cannot tolerate wicked [men] and have tested and critically appraised those who call [themselves] apostles (special messengers of Christ) and yet are not, and have found them to be impostors and liars. I know you are enduring patiently and are bearing up for My name’s sake, and you have not fainted or become exhausted or grown weary. But I have this [one charge to make] against you: that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first [you have deserted Me, your first love]. Remember then from what heights you have fallen. Repent (change the inner man to meet God’s will) and do the works you did previously [when first you knew the Lord], or else I will visit you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you change your mind and repent. Revelations 2:2-5 AMPC
This is the church of Ephesus Jesus is talking about. They are the church that have ticked off the lists, endured hardships, laboured and toiled in their work, and have not grown weary in doing things in His Name. But the one thing that Jesus has against them - this being the thing that makes them fall - is that they have abandoned the love they had at first, they have abandoned Jesus.
Friend, your bank account may look good, your hard work may be paying off, your endurance through trials may be consistent, but what about Him? What about your first love Who loved you to death and saved you from the grave? What about Jesus Who endured the Cross - the nails, thorns, whips, spear, and blaspheme - yet asked God to forgive you on His behalf? What about Jesus Who resurrected from the grave having conquered all evil, disease, brokenness, and sent His Spirit upon you so that you may be sealed in Him?
We forget that we are but God's creation whom He has given everything to so that we may love Him and be loved by Him.
Psalm 1
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on His law day and night. 3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.
4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
The Word of God is with us, leading us, growing us, planting us as righteous oaks of His splendour. The Word accomplishes all He desires and it achieves the purpose for which He sent it - it satisfies wholly and eternally, it is live-giving, heart-repairing, and light-shining like a lampstand for all to see. Jesus is Who we need to spend time with - He lights our lampstands, fills up our grain and water until it's overflowing, lifts us up on His shoulders, and carries us in the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. It's time we repent and go back to our first love, Jesus.
...so is My word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:11
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