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I’m doing all the right things. I visit, study, pray, worship, fellowship, but it just isn’t there. What is wrong? You’ve probably lost your first love for Christ. At our conversion, the Spirit of God enters our life and confirms that a new relationship has been established with God. “The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” (Romans 8:16) God’s spirit within us produces love for obedience to God and His word. The ministers must guard against grieving the Spirit of God and leaving their “first love”. In Revelation 2:2-5, Jesus gives affirmation of the Ephesians church only to rebuke them for leaving their “first love”. He said, they must repent or he would remove their candlestick. How do we leave our “first love”? It’s not because we are not working for God. Jesus saw their works. It’s not because of not reading the Bible. The Pharisees knew the scriptures. It’s not because of not praying. We can pray and still be cold. It’s not because of not witnessing. We can witness and still have dullness in our souls. How? We leave our “first love” when we lose our daily awareness of our need for God. It’s our need for God that brings us to salvation; however, once God begins to meet our needs, we tend to forget that we have them. We become rich and increased with goods and feel that we have need of nothing. Then we lose our “first love”. (Revelation 3:17) God used the following process in dealing with his people. God led Israel out of the bondage of Egypt to the Promised Land. Each step of the way brought new needs which were far beyond their ability to meet: deliverance from the pursuing Egyptian Army; food and water in the barren desert; and direction on where and when to move. After forty years of God’s love and care for them, He predicted they would lose their love for Him. He predicted that when they entered the Promised Land, they would forget their day-by-day provision for their needs. They would see their own hands providing their provision. As their gold, crops, and provisions increased they would little by little lose their dependency on God as their provider. "Beware…lest when thou has eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein…and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God…”(Deuteronomy 8:11-14) When we are secure for the future and well fed for the present, we begin to believe that we can avoid the consequences of violating God’s standards. We lose our fear of the Lord. As ministers we become good at what we do. We begin to feel some success and self approval. We begin to substitute our resources in place of our daily awareness that we need God in all that we do. Then it happens, we leave our “first love”. Let’s take an evaluation right now. Is “Christ” first or do we just act like it? If so, our strength from God will vanish just like the Israelites did from time to time. Why don’t we repent to Christ now and get our “first love” back, after all He called “us”. When we substitute something in place of His love, and our love to Him, we put enmity between us. Advantage Satan! God’s formula for our success in ministry is to love Him FIRST!!!! |
