The tricky thing about losing your first love…
…is you can do it without realizing it.
I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
-Jesus, Revelation 2:2-4
What I’m extremely aware of in this stage of my life is the fact that the Ephesians did everything right. Jesus has no complaint for the Ephesians about anything that they did or didn’t do. No sin was mentioned and there was no rebuke for what was left undone. These guys worked hard, were patient, tested false apostles, endured persecution patiently for the name of Christ, and even after doing all of that they didn’t grow weary.
Except…
They lost their first love. And even though on the outside everything was good, on the inside their love had grown cold. In fact, everything they had done so well was in jeopardy because they missed the reason they started in the first place: they loved Jesus. I struggle with this because we as Western believers measure so much of our spirituality based on what we do. And while we need to be people who obey Jesus, Christianity can quickly become about what we’ve done for Jesus lately.
I don’t want to be the guy who did all the right things but lost my first love. I don’t think you do either. But losing our first love happens slowly over time, little bit by little bit.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Until one day it’s gone.
These words were written to a historical church in Asia Minor, but they were written down and recorded for our benefit. Hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Don’t let your love for the Lord grow cold. Take time to make sure the fire is burning brightly inside and you’re not just dealing with glowing ashes.
The cure that Jesus gives us if we find our selves in this same spot is simple. Look where you’ve come from! Remember the love you felt in your heart towards God when you first came to Jesus. And when you see where you’ve fallen from, do the things that stirred up your heart in those early days when it was just you and Jesus.
None of us wants to lose our first love. But we have to decide to keep it.
May the the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with God’s love, meet you as you examine your heart today.
Photo Credit: Dui bhuboner dui bashinda by Aftab Uzzaman
Knowing the Unknowable God
One of the realities I struggle with many days in my walk with God is “How far is too far?” I know that seems like a weird question to ask when I’m talking about God. But the question is never, “Have I gone after Jesus too hard in a way that makes me unrelatable to the rest of the world?” More often the question is, “I sure feel like I’ve gone a long ways, but maybe there’s more of God and I’ve settled for too little. Could I have not gone far enough?”
Maybe you can relate.
But the mystery of God is this: God is unknowable and yet He invites us to know Him.
God is unknowable: He’s God because He is bigger and more complex than you. He measures out the universe in span of His hand. We’re talking about the God who laid the foundations of the world and taught the stars how to shine. He created the star and created the atom and everything in between and holds it all together through the word of His power. He knows you and your ways far better than you know Him. If you could fully understand God, if you could get your tiny human mind around Him and His ways, if you could know Him fully, He would cease to be God. You want a God that’s bigger than you.
And yet…
God wants to be known: We first see Him creating a world where He can relate to people. Then people break that special bond they have with Him and hide and He goes to find them. He spends thousands of years beckoning and whispering to people that He will come and break the curse that we’ve put on ourselves only to finally end up shouting in fragile form of His Son, Jesus Christ. And with the final act of laying down His life Jesus atones for our sins against Him and the veil that separated God from man is torn in two, signaling an end to us being shut out from His presence.
So, yes, God is unknowable. But He wants to be known.
Which is why Paul prays in Ephesians 3 this prayer:
I pray that…you have the power to understand…how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is….though it is too great to understand fully.
-Ephesians 3:16-19
Friends, God knows He’s too big for us. He knows we will never fully comprehend Him and His love for us. He knows that He is an ocean of love and our small, frail hearts are the size of a thimble. We can never fully hold the vastness of who He is.
But this, I think is a secret to God’s heart, that if you understand, will help you grow in Him:
He invites us to try anyways.
Friends, I don’t think the issue is to get a certain amount of God. That would be impossible. I think the answer is to keep opening your heart to receive more of Him, knowing that you will never be able to comprehend it all. Be okay with the God who is bigger than you. Who has more love than you. And keep opening your heart knowing it will never be able to hold everything God has to give.
Today, I pray that you would have the power to understand how wide, how long, how high, and how deep the love of Christ is, though it’s too big for you anyways.
Redeeming the Time
“We ought to make the best possible use of God-given opportunities and should not waste our precious time by neglect or carelessness. Many people say: there is plenty of time to do this or that; don’t worry. But they do not realize that if they do not make good use of this short time, the habit formed now will be so ingrained that when more time is given to us, this habit will become our second nature and we shall waste that time also. ‘Whoever is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much’ (Luke 16:10).”
-Sadhu Sundar Singh
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 