Return to Your First Love

It was just a few short weeks ago that we celebrated our daughter’s eighteenth birthday. As we rifled through the boxes and boxes of pictures of our daughter’s life, my wife and I uncovered a number of pictures that we took of us and our antics during our courtship. It was fun to laugh and remember those carefree days and to revel in that glorious time of falling in love. In fact, in less than thirty days we will be celebrating our 20th anniversary….our love is still strong and growing; however, the days are not as carefree. Just the thought of these passing years reminds me of a story…..

It seems that a husband and wife were heading home after enjoying a delicious meal in celebration of their 25th wedding anniversary. The wife looked over at her husband behind the steering wheel and dreamily remarked, “Honey, remember when we first started dating and I sat beside you and you put your arm around me as we drove around town.” The husband winked and said, “I sure do, sweetie and you know what? In twenty five years, nothing’s changed…I’m still right here; I haven’t moved an inch.”

If you stop and think about this little story, it just might mirror your relationship with Jesus. Maybe, after all these years as a child of the King, you just don’t feel as close to Him as you once did. Maybe the romance and excitement of knowing Jesus as a close and personal friend has lost its ability to stir you…to excite you…to move you to service. Maybe it’s time to examine your relationship and determine how you can get back the glow of that first love…after all, Christ has not moved one inch.

Perhaps, John’s writing in Revelation 2, verse 4 best describes the problem; “Yet there is one thing wrong; you don’t love me as at first. Think about those times of your first love (how different now!) and turn back to me again and work as you did before;” The Living Bible/Paraphrased

It’s time to turn back to Jesus…to once again revel in the sweet spirit of His love and know that He is just as close to us now as He ever has been. He loves us with a jealous love and His grip holds us tightly… so tightly that nothing that the Devil and his demons throw at us can shake us from his mighty hand; but we must come back to him and seek to serve him as we did in the beginning.

Remember when you first came to know Jesus as your Savior…the inexplicable joy, the excitement of belonging to Him, the cleansing power of His sacrifice and the ever-present peace of knowing that your name is FOREVER written in the Lamb’s Book of Life….that’s the power of your first love!!!!

And there is no greater demonstration of that love than to live out your love in SERVICE….Jesus came not to be served but to serve and He expects that from you and me. So, today, return to your first love, Jesus; show Him how much you love him in an act of selfless service…and in each act of service you will be drawn closer to the one you love and to the One who loves you and died so that you might live forever with Him….and that’s REAL LOVE!!!!!

Remember…Jesus hasn’t moved, you have….start moving back to Him today!

Returning to my first and forever love, Jesus

WPQ