Staying in Love

Revelation 2:5 Nevertheless, I have this against you; you have forsaken your first love.

Read the first seven verses of Revelation chapter 2. Look at all the stuff they were doing for God. If you were looking for a church, the church at Ephesus seemed to be perfect. They appeared to have it going on and Jesus Himself praises them like crazy…until verse 5. He basically tells them “you are doing some great stuff…but you’re not in love with me.” He even goes on to tell them they USED to be in love with Him, but they are not anymore.

I wonder how Jesus would evaluate me right now. What would He say I’m doing right? What would be His “yet I have this against you” to me? “Adam, you read your Bible in the mornings. You go to church every Sunday. You help people out. You try to be a ‘good‘ person.” Before I read Revelation 2, I probably would have thought it would have been wonderful if He had told me that. Now…I simply want Him to tell me that He knows that I love Him.

John 14:15 has become one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It says “if you love me, you will obey what I command.” He tells us that if we are in love with Him, obedience is just second nature. Much like when a kid falls in love with a video game, that’s what they spend all their time doing. They don’t have to think about it. When a person falls in love, they don’t have to decide if they are going to spend hours and hours on the telephone talking to their new boyfriend or girlfriend. In the same way, Jesus wants us to fall in love with Him so much that we just can’t get our minds off of Him. He wants us to love Him so much that we can’t help but read the Word and pray simply because we just have to be around Him.

Unfortunately, falling in love is easy, but staying in love is hard. I would challenge that kid who is in love with his game to be in love with that game 30 years from now. After the new systems come out, and after technology gets better, he won’t be in love anymore with what he is now. I would challenge the boyfriend/girlfriend to stay in love…we all know how the majority of those relationships end. We even know that half of all the people who get married end up divorced. And these are people who stood before God and their family and friends and said they would remain in love until death separated them…what happens? Well, falling in love is easy…staying in love is hard.

Jesus does not want us to simply do stuff for Him…He wants our hearts. He wants us to realize how much He loves us, and He wants us to love Him back…not because we feel obligated and feel like we HAVE to, but because we WANT to. If you find yourself not as close to Him as you once were, He gives us the solution: “Consider how you have fallen. Repent, and do the things you did at first.” Remember what it was like to just be in His Presence. Never forget what it is like for the Holy Ghost to just give you goose bumps and make the hair on your arms stand up. How long has it been since you’ve had a touch from the Lord? If you can’t remember, repent, and do the things you used to do. Listen to the things you used to listen to. Visit the church you used to go to when the fire fell. Whatever it was, and wherever it was…go back to it. Re-ignite that fire!

What do you do if you lose the fire of God that was once inside of you?

Go find it! Do whatever you have to do to get it back!

Later

Adam