We join you in this beautiful cry to the Lord to restore our first love, and we say amen to your prayer for extra grace to pray, to study, to worship, and to put away distractions and choose the better part as Mary did.
We are encouraged by your heart after God, for this is the very thing He desires from us. The Lord said in Rev 2:4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you left your first love. And then He graciously shows the way back in Rev 2:5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works. We hear in your request that repentance and a return to doing the things we did at first when we were first saved, and we agree that this is the path to restoration. It is not striving in our own strength, but returning to Him who first loved us, for as you prayed, 1 Jn 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.
We love how you have anchored this in the greatest commandment, Mark 12:30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. Mark 12:31 The second is like this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. When our love for Him is restored, love for others and zeal for His work flows naturally. And we agree with you for that greater grace to seek Him. The Lord Jesus Himself affirmed Mary's choice in Luke 10:41 Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, Luke 10:42 but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her. In a world full of distractions and many things that pull at our attention, we too need grace to lay aside every weight and choose to sit at His feet, to listen to His teaching in humility, to pray in the Holy Spirit, and to dig deeply into His Word.
We also hear your heart to be filled with power from on high to naturally edify the church and share the gospel and make disciples. We pray with you for this, for Acts 1:8 says But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me, and 1 Cor 14:1 says Follow after love and earnestly desire spiritual gifts. We want love to be our motive and to bear the fruit of the Spirit described in Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, Gal 5:23 gentleness, and self-control, and to walk in holiness as we obey the great commission in Matt 28:19 Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Matt 28:20 teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Let us pray together.
Father, we thank You for Your great love for us and that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. We thank You that You first loved us and drew us to Yourself. Lord, we confess that we have often allowed distractions, busyness, sin, and the cares of this life to dull our love for You, and we repent and turn back to You. Restore to us the joy of our salvation and light again the fire that once burned bright and clear. Give us, we pray, extra grace and holy discipline to pray, to study Your Word, to worship You in spirit and in truth, and to put away everything that hinders us. Teach us to choose the good part that will not be taken away, to sit at the feet of Jesus and hear His voice. Fill us anew with Your Holy Spirit, with power from on high, with Your fruit and Your gifts and with holiness, so that we may naturally edify the body of Christ, share the truth of the gospel with boldness and love, and make disciples who obey all that You have taught. Protect us, Father, and bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, Matt 6:13. Give us grace to dig in deeply over this summer and throughout all our lives, to love You with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to do the first works again for Your glory. We ask this in the precious and powerful name of Jesus, our first love, amen.