Silas
Beloved of All
Your desire to return to your first love is exactly what the Lord delights to answer. He knows the heart that wants to love Him with all that you are, heart and soul and mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, and He is the one who makes that possible.
Scripture reminds us that we love because He first loved us. Our love for Him is always a response. The measure of His love is not found in our feelings or in our circumstances, but in the cross. There God showed His love once for all in sending His Son to be the payment for our sins while we were still sinners. When the enemy tries to tell you that God does not love you because of struggle or failure or distraction, look again to the cross. That is the unchanging proof that God is love and that His love for you is constant in good days and bad.
That is why restoration to your first love begins not with striving harder to love Him, but with remembering and believing how much He has loved you. The call in Revelation is to remember, to turn, and to do the things you did at first. Those first works are simple and humble. Like Mary you are choosing the better part when you sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to His word with a humble heart. That choice to be with Him in prayer and in the Scriptures is never taken away and it is the place where love is renewed.
You cannot manufacture this love on your own, and you are not asked to. Apart from Christ we can do nothing. Love is fruit. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in a life that abides in Jesus. As you consent to Him in prayer and open your heart to His word, He fills you and forms that love within you. Prayer is not forcing God to do something, it is agreeing with what He already desires to do in you. Ask Him for the grace and discipline to seek Him daily, to put aside distractions, and to walk in holiness, and trust Him to produce in you both the desire and the power.
One of the surest signs of His Spirit at work is love for one another. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, for God is love. That love is not the world's idea of love. It is self giving love, the same love Christ showed when He gave Himself for us. To walk in love as Christ loved us means to forgive as you have been forgiven and to serve as you have been served. It naturally builds up the church and it naturally overflows in sharing the gospel and teaching others to obey all that Jesus commanded. God first lays the foundation of all He has done for you and all He has provided for you, and then He calls you to walk in love in response.
He also knows you will not be perfect in this walk. All have sinned and fall short, but He looks at the heart that truly wants to please Him. The law of the Spirit writes His will on your heart and directs your desires. When you stumble, He remains faithful. All things are still working together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
So I pray with you that the Lord will restore the joy and warmth of your first love. May He give you fresh grace to pray in the Spirit and to study His word with understanding, to worship with a sincere heart, and to turn away from distractions and from sin. May He keep you from the evil one and lead you in holiness. May He fill you with His power from on high, with the fruit of His Spirit and with the gifts He gives for the good of others, so that your life bears the fruit He seeks and your witness carries His truth with love. May He bind your heart more deeply to Jesus and to His people, and make you a faithful disciple who helps make other disciples, all for the glory of His name. In Jesus' name, amen.
Scripture reminds us that we love because He first loved us. Our love for Him is always a response. The measure of His love is not found in our feelings or in our circumstances, but in the cross. There God showed His love once for all in sending His Son to be the payment for our sins while we were still sinners. When the enemy tries to tell you that God does not love you because of struggle or failure or distraction, look again to the cross. That is the unchanging proof that God is love and that His love for you is constant in good days and bad.
That is why restoration to your first love begins not with striving harder to love Him, but with remembering and believing how much He has loved you. The call in Revelation is to remember, to turn, and to do the things you did at first. Those first works are simple and humble. Like Mary you are choosing the better part when you sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to His word with a humble heart. That choice to be with Him in prayer and in the Scriptures is never taken away and it is the place where love is renewed.
You cannot manufacture this love on your own, and you are not asked to. Apart from Christ we can do nothing. Love is fruit. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in a life that abides in Jesus. As you consent to Him in prayer and open your heart to His word, He fills you and forms that love within you. Prayer is not forcing God to do something, it is agreeing with what He already desires to do in you. Ask Him for the grace and discipline to seek Him daily, to put aside distractions, and to walk in holiness, and trust Him to produce in you both the desire and the power.
One of the surest signs of His Spirit at work is love for one another. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, for God is love. That love is not the world's idea of love. It is self giving love, the same love Christ showed when He gave Himself for us. To walk in love as Christ loved us means to forgive as you have been forgiven and to serve as you have been served. It naturally builds up the church and it naturally overflows in sharing the gospel and teaching others to obey all that Jesus commanded. God first lays the foundation of all He has done for you and all He has provided for you, and then He calls you to walk in love in response.
He also knows you will not be perfect in this walk. All have sinned and fall short, but He looks at the heart that truly wants to please Him. The law of the Spirit writes His will on your heart and directs your desires. When you stumble, He remains faithful. All things are still working together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
So I pray with you that the Lord will restore the joy and warmth of your first love. May He give you fresh grace to pray in the Spirit and to study His word with understanding, to worship with a sincere heart, and to turn away from distractions and from sin. May He keep you from the evil one and lead you in holiness. May He fill you with His power from on high, with the fruit of His Spirit and with the gifts He gives for the good of others, so that your life bears the fruit He seeks and your witness carries His truth with love. May He bind your heart more deeply to Jesus and to His people, and make you a faithful disciple who helps make other disciples, all for the glory of His name. In Jesus' name, amen.
