As you sit there and read the title, try and remember your first love. Whether your first love was a passion or a person, don’t worry I won’t judge you……….Ok. Now that we’re done with memory lane(I know, 3 seconds, I know), let’s get right into it shall we.
Mahatma Gandhi said: Where there is love, there is life.
As we revisited all those fuzzy feelings of our first love, for 3 seconds, I’m sure many of you remembered exactly how that was like. At that moment everything seemed perfect and the atmosphere was filled with serene romance. It made you feel like all was right in the world and like you could do almost about anything now. And then it fades…
That’s how some of us get when we first fall in love with Christ. At first our relationship with Him seems all warm and fuzzy but slowly it starts depreciating. The truth of the matter is because we don’t spend enough time with Him to get to know Him.
When we fail to be in communion with God in our personal time, we tend to forget who God truly is. Prayer, studying scripture, and actively serving keeps us connected to the source of life, God. Lack of discipline in these areas lead to a misconstrue image of God in our minds. We start to think of Him more like a genie. We start to think of Him more like He’s present to serve us, rather than vice versa. Eventually the doubts that come into mind about our Lord become inevitable.
Revelation 19:7-9 says:
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
If the Bible tells us that Jesus is the groom of the Church and we are His bride, what exactly does that say about us? We’re the ones who lose love for the Lord, not the other way around. We’re the ones who instead of depending on His word, we try to depend on our own strength. Therefore this whole time we’re the ones who have been unfaithful in the relationship. That is what Christianity is all about, a relationship with Christ. In a relationship where there is no communication, silence can be deadly to the body, soul, and spirit.
Failure to stay in communication with God makes us forget to walk daily with the Holy Spirit. Makes us forget to deny ourselves before Him and fully receive grace. Makes us forget the price we were bought for when Christ sacrificed himself on the cross to give us life. Life we didn’t deserve.
That fuzzy feeling of love is not being felt because of You! You’re the one not staying committed in the relationship. You’re the one not communicating back. You’re the one not listening. You’re the one expecting to receive, rather than give. See a relationship functions properly when both sides give their 100% on each side. Sometimes we barely give God our 50%. We know when the tithing basket comes around we have difficult even giving Him our 10%. But that’s another subject for another day.
A fire stays burning as long as oxygen, heat, and fuel are there to sustain it. Love will stay flowing as long as we’re giving life to it. Just as you were willing to do whatever it took to make your first love happy and stay as faithful as possible, let’s give that back to God.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 states:
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away
The first word I always noticed about that verse was “patient.” I believe that patient being one of the first traits of love is no coincidence. In fact, I think often times we can be too anxious about life that we forget that patience is a major factor that comes into play when we build that relationship with Christ. Things can be going wrong and suddenly it’s like we forget what Christ has done in our lives. Life was never promised to be a cakewalk. Instead let us be patient until the coming of Christ so we can cut that wedding cake and enjoy the feast with our savior!
You want to go back to that first love you felt with Christ!? Well then fight for His love and stay in the path He’s given you! Devote yourself back into His plan for you and be sure you’re giving your 100% to Him!
Psalm 37:7:
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him
The Creation of Magno 