Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer to return to your first love is precious to the Lord and it is exactly what He desires to answer. The Scripture says we love because He first loved us, and when we truly see and understand how deeply He has loved us in Christ, something answers in our hearts. Our love for Him is never the starting point. It is always a response to His grace already poured out toward us.
Jesus spoke to the church in Ephesus with both tenderness and warning when He said He had this against them, that they had left their first love. They were still busy with many good works, but that early brightness and closeness had faded. His call to them was to remember from where they had fallen, to repent, and to do the works they did at first. It is the same call God gave to Israel when He asked where the love of their espousal had gone, that early love when He drew them to Himself. He is a jealous God in the holy sense, He wants your love to be supreme, with no other loves taking His place. He invites you back to that fresh excitement and devotion you knew at the beginning.
That is why your desire to choose the better part like Mary is so right. Martha was distracted and pulled in many directions, but Mary sat at the feet of Jesus in humility and listened to His teaching. Jesus said that part would not be taken from her. To put away distractions and the love of the world and the things of the world is not to earn His love, but to make room to hear His voice again and to abide in His love. As you keep His commandments and walk with Him, you remain in His love and His joy remains in you.
One sure sign that His Spirit is at work in you is love itself. The fruit of the Spirit is love, and that love is not selfish and it is not merely a return for love given. It is agape, a giving love like the love with which Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. It shows itself in a genuine love for brothers and sisters in Christ and in love for your neighbor as yourself, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Pursue that love above all, and then earnestly desire the work of the Spirit in fruit and in gifts and in holiness, so that you can build up the church and share the gospel with power from on high.
Prayer is not trying to change God or force Him to do what we want. It is opening the door and consenting for God to do what He already desires to do in you and through you. So I pray that the Father will give you extra grace to pray in the Holy Spirit and to study His Word diligently, to worship with a whole heart, and to walk in holiness. May He guard you from sin and from the evil one, and keep you from every distraction that would pull you away. May He fill you with His Spirit so that you naturally strengthen the church, speak the truth in love, share the good news of Jesus Christ who alone saves, and help others to follow Him, teaching them to observe all that He commanded.
May the Lord light that fire again and restore the lamp of that first love with holy reverence for Him. May you hear His voice, remain in His love, and live in the fullness of that love all the days of your life, in Jesus name, amen.
Jesus spoke to the church in Ephesus with both tenderness and warning when He said He had this against them, that they had left their first love. They were still busy with many good works, but that early brightness and closeness had faded. His call to them was to remember from where they had fallen, to repent, and to do the works they did at first. It is the same call God gave to Israel when He asked where the love of their espousal had gone, that early love when He drew them to Himself. He is a jealous God in the holy sense, He wants your love to be supreme, with no other loves taking His place. He invites you back to that fresh excitement and devotion you knew at the beginning.
That is why your desire to choose the better part like Mary is so right. Martha was distracted and pulled in many directions, but Mary sat at the feet of Jesus in humility and listened to His teaching. Jesus said that part would not be taken from her. To put away distractions and the love of the world and the things of the world is not to earn His love, but to make room to hear His voice again and to abide in His love. As you keep His commandments and walk with Him, you remain in His love and His joy remains in you.
One sure sign that His Spirit is at work in you is love itself. The fruit of the Spirit is love, and that love is not selfish and it is not merely a return for love given. It is agape, a giving love like the love with which Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. It shows itself in a genuine love for brothers and sisters in Christ and in love for your neighbor as yourself, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Pursue that love above all, and then earnestly desire the work of the Spirit in fruit and in gifts and in holiness, so that you can build up the church and share the gospel with power from on high.
Prayer is not trying to change God or force Him to do what we want. It is opening the door and consenting for God to do what He already desires to do in you and through you. So I pray that the Father will give you extra grace to pray in the Holy Spirit and to study His Word diligently, to worship with a whole heart, and to walk in holiness. May He guard you from sin and from the evil one, and keep you from every distraction that would pull you away. May He fill you with His Spirit so that you naturally strengthen the church, speak the truth in love, share the good news of Jesus Christ who alone saves, and help others to follow Him, teaching them to observe all that He commanded.
May the Lord light that fire again and restore the lamp of that first love with holy reverence for Him. May you hear His voice, remain in His love, and live in the fullness of that love all the days of your life, in Jesus name, amen.
