Morning Moments

“...you have left your first love...”

What an indictment!

It is not such an uncommon thing. A young couple falls in love, each believing that there is no one else in the world for them and after a few years come to believe that they are incompatible – they have left their first love. A church gets a new pastor and believes that this is a God sent, but after a few challenges upon which they disagree – they have left their first love. A mom is grace with a precious gift from God, a child which she believes is a God sent. The child get to the “terrible twos” and she wishes someone else had the child – she left her first love. It happens all the time, but it is so sad.

Ephesus was such a strong church. It believed and behaved. It's doctrine and deportment were excellent and were commended by Jesus in Revelation 2, but there was only one problem – she had left her first love.

But what does that mean? Does it mean that she had stopped seeking the lost? No! Does it mean that she had stopped the “fellowship dinners”? No! Does it mean that the preaching was watered down? No! Does it mean that she was not growing? No! Then what on earth could leaving her first love mean?

It is easy to put growth before God. It is easy to put a thousand good things before Him. I know what it is like to put ministry before my Master, care for others above care for Christ, pure doctrine before personal devotion, or love for work before love for worship. It is why we grow weary in well doing. It is why we faint, fatigue, or frustrate. There is always someone or something which demands first place in our lives whether family, friends, or foe.

We can allow problems to push us of the path, obstacles to obscure opportunity, the “package” to become more important than the people, or “preaching” to be more important than the One about whom we preach.

Jesus said, “Unless you put Me before father, mother, spouse, property, children, and EVERYTHING else, you cannot be my disciple.” Now THAT is powerful! It means that I love HIM more than preaching, parenting, playing golf, pleasure, pressure, possibilities, planning, or even praying itself. But when I do, all these other “good” things are seen in proper perspective and HE is my all in all. I learn that I can live without sex, without strokes, without celebrity, without bigger and better whatever. It can be summed up in the words of Audrey Maire: “I long so much to feel the touch of His consuming fire. Consume me, O God! That's my desire.

Stay THERE and you nor I will ever leave our first love.

BLESSINGS!