Two young people fall in love. They can hardly wait to be together and can spend countless hours talking and sharing their feelings, thoughts, and desires for the future. No one is more important than the love of their life.
This couple gets married, the years go by, children are added, and things change. Routine sets in, and the humdrum of everyday life, with its demands and struggles, takes over. The sparks fizzle, the butterflies cease to flutter, and that first, exciting love evaporates.
Regretfully, this is the case in many marriages. Maintaining the sparkle and importance of that first love requires time, effort, and focus. It entails commitment and work, but the benefits far outweigh the work required.
A similar scenario happens to us spiritually. When we first meet Jesus, we are excited and thrilled with the wonder of being saved from our sins and having eternal life. We are anxious to share the Gospel with our family and friends. Reading God's word fills our hearts with joy, and we are eager to serve Him.
However, far too often over time, our relationship with Jesus becomes dull and stale like in some marriages. This was the problem with the church in Ephesus when Jesus wrote these words. “Nevertheless I have something against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” (Revelation 2:4 KJV).
We go through the Christian routines and rituals we have been taught. We look fine on the outside, but our focus slowly and silently sifts away from our first love, Jesus Christ. We become occupied with other things including our own agenda and our acts of service. We experience little joy, reading His word becomes a chore, and the excitement of being a child of God evaporates. We find ourselves feeling discontented and discouraged. Oswald Chambers makes an interesting observation. “Discouragement is disillusioned self-love, and self-love may be love for my devotion to Jesus, not love for Jesus Himself.”
How can we regain our first love? A vibrant love for God is a combination of an intense awareness of who He is and an overwhelming sense of gratitude for all He has given us. As we spent time reading and meditating on God’s word, bearing our hearts in prayer, and confessing our sins the Holy Spirit will increase our love for Christ.
Both maintaining a healthy marriage and an intimate relationship with our Lord and Savior, require keeping our focus on what is important and avoiding distractions. I have been married for fifty-six years and can testify to the value of keeping a strong marriage. But even more, I can verify the importance of keeping an intimate relationship with Jesus, the Lover of our soul.
“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:” (Mark 12:30 KJV).
Have you lost your first love?