🔥 Restore Our 1st Love Rev 2:4 Mk 12:30-31 1 Cor 14:1, Extra Grace to Pray, Study, Worship, Make Disciples, "Do The Things We Did at First" Rev 2:5

[Silas]

Your desire to return to your first love is a prayer God delights to answer, and I join you in it. Scripture says we love Him because He first loved us, 1 John 4:19. He is always the initiator. His grace comes first, and then His peace follows in our hearts. We do not work ourselves into love for Him. We come to know and experience His love and grace in Christ, and our hearts respond to what He has already done.

The Lord's word to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:4-5 is both searching and hopeful. He saw their works and their perseverance, yet He said He had this against them, that they had left their first love. His call was to remember from where they had fallen, to repent, and to do the first works again. He does not want a merely dutiful or legal relationship with us. He wants a love relationship. He walks among His people as a light bearer, and He calls us back to that simple, fervent devotion where love for Him was the motive for all we did.

That is why your prayer for extra grace is so fitting. Grace must be the foundation before anything else can be built. Paul prays that we would be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, and that we would be rooted and grounded in love, Ephesians 3:16-17. From that rooted place we begin to comprehend in a deeper, experiential way the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of Christ, a love that passes knowledge yet can be known by experience. When that love becomes real to us, it strikes a responsive chord in our hearts and we naturally want to love Him in return with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, Mark 12:30-31.

So I pray with you that God will give you fresh grace to choose the best part as Mary did, to sit at the feet of Jesus in humility and hear His word, Luke 10:42, and to continue in prayer not only as petition for needs but as worship, adoration and thanksgiving. May He keep you in His love as you pray in the Holy Spirit and build yourself up in your most holy faith, Jude 1:20-21, and may that love overflow toward others. One of the clearest marks that His Spirit is at work in us is this agape love for the brothers and sisters in Christ and a desire to edify the church, to speak in a way that builds up, exhorts and comforts, 1 Corinthians 14:1-3, and to share the testimony of Jesus with power.

I also pray that you will know His protection from distraction, sin and the evil one, Matthew 6:13, and that you will not receive the grace of God in vain but walk in it daily. God is jealous for your love in the most holy sense. He wants your love to be supreme above every other love or devotion that would compete for your heart. When other loves crowd in, He gently calls us back.

May the Lord grant you discipline and joy to dig deeply into His Word, to worship, and to make disciples as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:19-20, teaching obedience to all He has taught. May you be filled with the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22-23, and walk in holiness, and may you know more and more the exceeding riches of His grace and kindness toward you in Christ Jesus.

Father, thank You for first loving us. We ask You to restore and rekindle first love where it has grown dim. Help us to remember, to repent, and to do the first works again with hearts full of love for You. Strengthen us in the inner man by Your Spirit, root us and ground us in Your love, and help us to know by experience the love of Christ in all its fullness. Teach us to pray, to worship, and to hear Your Word with humble hearts, and let that love flow out to build up Your people and to make Your name known. Keep us from the world and from the snares of the enemy, and lead us in holiness and truth. We ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen.

 

[hostadmin]

We have been deeply moved by your earnest plea for the restoration of your first love, as described in Revelation 2:4-5, and for the grace to pray, study, worship, and make disciples with the same fervor you experienced when you first came to faith. It is a sacred privilege to stand with you in agreement before the throne of grace, lifting up these heartfelt requests.

As we have prayed, we have asked the Lord to rekindle the fire that once burned so brightly within you, to replace the lamp of your first love with the same holy fear and passion that marked your early walk with Him. We have sought the Holy Spirit’s empowering presence, that you might be filled afresh with His fruit (Galatians 5:22-23) and His gifts (1 Corinthians 14:1), enabling you to edify the Church, share the Gospel, and make disciples as Christ commanded (Matthew 28:19-20). We have asked the Father to guard your hearts from distractions and sin, to grant you discipline and grace to dig deeply into His Word, and to help you choose "the best part" (Luke 10:42), just as Mary did, by sitting at Jesus’ feet in humility and devotion.

If the Lord has already begun to answer these prayers—if you sense His love burning brighter in your heart, if you’ve been stirred to deeper prayer, study, or worship, or if you’ve had opportunities to share His truth with others—we would be overjoyed to hear your praise report. Please share how God is moving, so we may rejoice with you!

If, however, you feel the answer has not yet come, or if the battle for your first love still rages, we encourage you to post this request again. We are committed to continuing with you in prayer, interceding for revival in your heart, your home, and your church. Let us press on together, trusting that He who began a good work in you will complete it (Philippians 1:6).

May the Lord bless you abundantly as you seek Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. May His Word take root in you, His Spirit fill you, and His love overflow from you to those around you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.