Darkness is never so dark as when a redeemed soul is not satisfied in God, the richness of Scripture is tasteless, and prayers seem meaningless. If you are feeling all this, it is not by chance that you have come this far; God is speaking to you through me.
These are all symptoms that you have left your first love, that immense and unmatched love of a father who has been able to give his son for your salvation. Look at the greatness of that love for you that you have left!
Distractions often get in the way of the best attempts to have quiet moments with God. Your heart sighs, the memories of a burning intimacy with Christ they make the soul tremble, but there is something that hinders the process, and that is causing that beautiful experience to be lost.
But do not worry! Here is God to call you and tell you that perhaps you have left your first love, but He has never abandoned you. Even if you have lost sight of him, he has always been there, and he is waiting, ready for you to recover that magical relationship that existed at the beginning.
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Symptoms that you have left your first love
Take a personal inventory while reading these features. You find that you identify with more than half of them, it means that you have left your first love. Perhaps you have done it without realizing it, but don’t worry; We are not here to judge, we are here to get you out of that pit you may be in right now:
- You can go hours or days without having more than a passing thought of Him.
- You do not have a strong desire to spend time with Him.
- You do not have a strong hunger for the Word. Bible reading is a “homework,” something to check off your “to do” list.things to do“.
- Spending time in prayer is a burden/duty rather than a pleasure.
- Your worship is formal, dry, lifeless, just going through the motions.
- Private prayer and worship are almost non-existent. There is a cold and dry environment.
- You are more concerned with physical health, well-being, and comfort than with the well-being and condition of your soul.
- You crave physical food, while you have little appetite for spiritual food.
- You long for human fellowship more than a relationship with Christ.
- You spend more time and effort on your physical appearance than on cultivating inner spiritual beauty to please Christ.
- Your heart towards Christ is cold and indifferent; He is not tender as before, he does not move easily through the Word, he does not speak of spiritual things, among other things.
- Christianity is more of a checklist than a relationship with Christ.
- You measure spirituality (yours / others) by performance instead of taking into account the condition of the heart.
- Christianity is defined more by what you “do” than by what you “are” (“do” has become more important than “be”).
- Your obedience and service are motivated and fueled by the expectations of others or the desire to impress, rather than by a passion for Christ.
- You are more concerned with what others think and pleasing them, than with what God knows and pleasing Christ.
- Your service to Christ and others is motivated by a sense of duty or obligation.
- You find yourself resentful of the difficulties and demands of serving Christ and others.
- You can talk to other people about the kids, marriage, the weather, and the news, but you have a hard time talking about the Lord and spiritual matters.
- Do you have a hard time coming up with something new to share at a church testimony service or when someone asks, “What has God been doing in your life?”
- You are formal, rigid, and uptight about spiritual things, rather than cheerful and attractive.
- You are critical or harsh with those who are doctrinally out of line or who are living in sin.
- You enjoy secular songs, movies, and books more than songs or reading material that point to Christ.
- You prefer the company of people who do not love Christ, to the company of those who do.
- You are more interested in recreation, entertainment, and “fun” than in cultivating intimacy with Christ through worship, prayer, the Word, and Christian fellowship.
- You display attitudes or are involved in activities that you know are contrary to the Scriptures, but you continue in them anyway.
- You justify “small” areas of disobedience or compromise.
- You have fallen back into sinful habits that you gave up as a young believer.
- The “little” things in the world that used to touch your conscience no longer do.
- You are slow to respond to conviction about sin, or completely ignorant of it.
- You enjoy certain sins and want to hold on to them. You are not willing to give them up for Christ.
- Sin does not afflict you, it is not a big deal to you.
- Certain sins constantly attract you.
- You are more concerned with sin in the lives of others than in your own.
- You are more concerned with having an admirable position than with the proper disposition.
- You tend to hold on tightly to money and things, instead of giving quickly to meet the needs of others.
- Seldom do you give sacrificially to the work of the Lord.
- You rarely have the desire to disclose legitimate financial needs within the Body, the church, or a ministry.
- Accumulating and maintaining material “stuff” takes more time and effort on your part than seeking and cultivating spiritual wealth.
- You have broken relationships with other believers, and you are unwilling or have not attempted to reconcile.
What is leaving your first love?
If you have left your first love, you are not the first to do this. There was a church in the bible this happened to. Jesus had John write seven letters to seven churches in his name. I mean the church of Ephesus. Revelation 2:2-3 he gives us the picture of this church, and says that they were not bad people, in fact, Jesus praised them.
“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear the wicked. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and you have found them liars; and you have persevered and you have patience, and you have labored for the love of my name and you have not tired.
I don’t know what you think of when you read those words, but I see a pretty amazing church. I would be proud to pastor a church like that. They were a working church. These people were occupied by Jesus. Their calendars were full of good activities. They were doing all the things churches do, outreach, discipleship.
They were working people for Jesus. They had worked for the name of Jesus and did not get tired. And he also says that they had a sense of right and wrong. They were moral people. These were not people who could not distinguish between good and evil.
They recognized some guys who claimed to be apostles and weren’t. They had persevered and had not given up. In other words, they had faced real tests and opposition from the enemy. These guys were patient.
What happened to the church of Ephesus?
They lived in a wicked culture. Ephesus was a bustling city in that day. He was known for the cult of. There was a huge temple there and consequently there was all this false worship of other gods and the immorality that was involved as well. And yet this church had left all of that, had separated from it.
However, Jesus knew that this group of believers (so commendable, so hardworking and so persevering), were not functioning the way they should. There was an internal heart problem that you have to deal with. This church had left its first love for Christ. Jesus challenges them in Revelation 2:4
“However, I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”
All those things you have been doing are good; all the work, perseverance, holiness and separation from the world. But Jesus is saying. “You have left that place of first love“. Jesus did not want to lose that sense of love that flows between Him and his eternal family. Scripture tells us that God is love. God enjoys the love of us, his children.
Leaving your first love?
Despite Satan’s hints, you are not the first to experience this paralyzing lack of happiness in God. After commending the Ephesian church regarding their patience, intolerance of evil, suffering for the name of Christ, and exposing the false apostles, Jesus confronts them.
Although this church looked amazing on paper, he dwells on a central theme: “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” (Revelation 2:4). They were zealous for orthodoxy, but they had lost their love for Jesus. They showed up for Bible studies and debated heretics, but lost their pure love for their Lord. They opposed the evil in their midst, but tolerated a slow love for Jesus and for others.
In private they were abandoning Christ, in their public quest for the truth about Christ. They were exchanging Christ himself for theological images of their Savior. It is a terrifying reality that the shoddy path is not only paved with good intentions, but also with good works and theological precision.
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Have you left your first love for Christ? Get it back
If you have left your first love for Christ, you can get it back! Sit down, concentrate and internalize all these thoughts that God is going to give you through me at this moment. There are three Biblical steps that can help you in this:
1. Remember
The first step to follow to return when you have left your first love is to remember. Revelation 2: 5th says:
“Remember, then, from where you have fallen.”
We must remember (in Greek it literally means “immortalize”). Jesus calls us to remember the height from which we have fallen, that of our relationship with him. I can go back in my mind to many moments of closeness that I have had with God. I remember worshiping my Savior in church and tears running down my face as he sang, “Thank You, Thank You, Thank You God.”
what to remember
Remember when you prayed for an open door to the ministry while you were working on the temple. Remember the passion you felt for Christ when you preached your first sermon. You can remember many moments shepherding the congregation, when God sustained you, and you felt his presence, his power and his anointing.
It’s a powerful thing to go back to your mind and remember. whatyou have lost your first love? She comes back and remembers. But when you really remember and come back, you don’t want those thoughts to be the pinnacle of your relationship with Him. You’ll want to be closer to Him every day, until you take your last breath and walk towards eternity.
You will not want to leave that place. As is or a thousand times better than when you reconcile with that person you consider “The great love of your life”. In fact, this is how it should be, Christ should be your first and greatest love.
If I’m honest, I must confess that I haven’t always kept that perfect first love by Jesus. There are times when I moved away from that closeness I had with Jesus. Times when I let anger, despair, sin, bitterness, or depression drive me away. But when I remember…