Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. (NIV) Revelation 2:5
Jesus spoke the words above to the church of Ephesus immediately after He told them, “I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love” (Revelation 2:4). Jesus never convicts us of a sin without offering both forgiveness and instruction on how to follow His desires for our lives. The instructions to the Ephesians were to: 1) Remember, 2) Repent, and 3) Return. They were to remember what it was like when they were in love with their first love (Him). They were to repent – acknowledge their sin, confess it, and determine not to return back to the same behavior. And lastly, they were to return to the things they did at first.
Have you lost your “first love” for Him? Go back and remember what it was like. . . the passion you had for Him. Have you confessed your lack of love for Him? And determined to make a 180 degree turn back to Him? Lastly, are you ready to go back and do the things “you did at first”? Are those first things, deepening your prayer life again? Or digging deeper into the Bible? Or re-connecting with a Bible teaching church? Or serving Him rather than being served? Or spending a whole day just with God?
Will you ask God today what it will take to stoke the fire of your faith so that He will never have to say to you, “I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love”?
Written by Marji “Mike” Kruger
