Returning to Your First Love

First loves hold a steadfast reputation for being memoirs of young love that are either never forgotten or are accounted for as one of the most bona fide experiences in love.  Some may wish to forget their experiences with first loves whilst others may be left feeling nostalgic about their encounters. Either way, first loves are known or rather said to leave an indelible impression whether good or bad.

Sitting in my room the other day before going to bed, the Lord started speaking to me about certain things; particularly the love of the world. He took me to two scriptures; Revelations 2:1-7 and 1John 2:15-17. Revelations 2:1-7 is a message to the Church of Ephesus from God and this is what God is saying (verse 3&4) “I know you are enduring patiently and are bearing up for My name’s sake, and you have not fainted or become exhausted or grown weary. But I have this [one charge to make] against you: that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first [you have deserted Me, your first love].” 1John 2:15-17 implores, “Do not love or cherish the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one’s own resources or in the stability of earthly things] – these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself].”

As I sat there after reading the scriptures, I thought to myself what is the love of the world? Could it be the pursuit for things? Could it be the dependency on one’s own capabilities? Could it be the drive to improve one’s personal living by acquiring possessions? In the midst of being baffled by the questions and the meaning of the love of the world, I got my answer. The love of the world is when we put our ambitions, dreams, purpose, pursuits, accreditations, beauty, gifts, talents and aspirations before God – Christ. It is when we allow the very things that God has blessed us with to engulf us in a way that they usurp His place in our lives. It is so easy to get caught up in the head rush of life; getting this and that done, becoming this, being that and accomplishing this and that to the point where our love for Christ imperceptibly dies out. By love dying out this does not bluntly mean the halting of church and most probably cursing the day you heard about the gospel, no. It means you do the very things which you are expected to do as a Christian but without the love. You go to church, serve, pray, attend every prayer meeting, and go about doing your business each day without the expression of love for the One who gave you the ability to do those things. As we recall Revelations 2:3-4, we see that the church of Ephesus was doing all the right things any church could be expected to do – enduring patiently and bearing up for the Lord’s name sake but were still impelled by God to return back to their first love (Him).

This really challenged me because God was showing me that 1) You can do all the "right things" a Christian is expected to do but still miss the Saviour-abandon Him. 2) It is very easy to be consumed by the things of the world in pursuit of fulfilment, happiness and reason for existence. And sometimes it is not because you purposely forsake the Lord as your first love or run after the things of the world – it is usually good intentions gone wrong. You want to serve the Lord with all you have but somehow you find yourself focused on what you have to do or expected to do instead of God or you are driven and passionate about life to the point where it takes first priority – putting God in the back seat.

1John 2:17 says, “And the world passes away and disappears, and with it the forbidden cravings (the passionate desires, the lust) of it; but he who does the will of God and carries out His purposes in his life abides (remains) forever.” Key revelations in this verse: “the world passes away,” and “he who does the will of God and carries out His purposes.” 1) The world passes: I know people usually do not like talking about the end times, the Lord’s coming, Heaven and Hell – some do not even believe in it. But truth is, the earth is passing away and all these good efforts to leave legacies, build empires, make names for ourselves will pass away too (like Solomon says in Ecclesiastes it is all meaningless and vanity in the end). 2) He who does the will of God and carries out His purposes: It is one thing to live out Your purpose and it is another living out God’s purpose for you. What is important is to live out God’s plan for your life, not your own because one thing we have to know; we will have to account for the lives we lived here on earth (and that’s really daunting coming to think about it). Can you imagine standing before God accounting for all that you had done on earth, only for Him to respond by telling you that that was not His will for your life (the trauma! Oh Lord).

So how does one really go about it? Put Jesus Christ at the centre of it all. I remember when we were growing up there was this WWJD phase (remember that?) What Would Jesus Do? I reckon we need to go back to that. In everything we do God has to come first; in our ambitions, talents, gifts, purpose, aspirations, dreams, plans – everything. Because it is in this way that we will be able to avoid the pitfalls of focusing too much on the things of the world but instead focus on our first love – which is Christ Jesus. Let your dreams be God’s dreams, let your ambition be God’s ambition, let your talents be God’s talents, let your purpose be God’s purpose, let your handsomeness be God’s handsomeness, let your beauty be God’s beauty – let it all be about Christ.

You know I sat there on my bed thinking to myself, “girl, you still got a long way to go.” God was basically nudging me to get back to the heart of Our relationship – love. It is not about being a good Christian but it is about love. It is not about the earthly things but it is about His purpose for our lives which of course He will accomplish whilst we live on earth. It is about loving the Lord God with the mind, heart and soul which requires one to let go of other first loves - letting Him take His place as thee first love. I don’t know what might be taking the place of God as a first love in your life; maybe your career, job, family, marriage, friends, money, ambition, purpose – but I am here to tell you that your original-first love is waiting for you to rush back into His caring platonic arms of love. Go along, and run back... He is waiting.

Much love, be blessed.