Encouragement
Our first love for Jesus was when we realized that we were lost and that Jesus had died for us to take away all our sins.
Those first months or years were delightful and filled with peace and joy. To think that Jesus had done it all and that our sins were forgiven.
It was a time of relief, gratefulness and joy. We had found the meaning of life.Nothing was too hard to do for the Lord. It was a time of zeal and enthusiasm.
I heard an Italian International footballer describe the feeling of winning the football World Cup, and I quote," I felt light, as if I was flying" That's how we all felt when we knew Jesus had taken all our burdens on the cross. The trees were taller, the grass greener and the flowers more beautiful.
That's how we all were. But we lost that love when we forgot the simplicity of the Gospel. When we came to Jesus originally it was a simple faith. It was uncomplicated.
We walked in a bubble and that bubble was the unconditional embrace of our Savior. Was it hard to tell others of our discovery? Was it hard to lift up our hands in adoration and praise ? No. Was it difficult to go the extra mile with Lord? No.
The Lord tells us that to get back our first love we must do the first works. What does He mean by that? The first work is the finished work that Jesus did on the cross. He did the original works and so we are to believe and trust the works that He did on the Cross.
To get back on track and get our first love back is simply reverting back to the original euphoria when we first believed the gospel. Where did we go astray?When we start 'doing' to please rather that being pleased to do because Jesus has done.
When we start drifting from grace to works we then lose the joy of our first love. Our first love is Jesus. When we start doing good works from selfish ambition and fleshly striving everything becomes warped and we lose direction and perspective.
We start wondering in the wilderness so to speak. Our spiritual compass starts spinning in all directions.
The fact of the matter is our first love automatically happens when we rest in His achievements. We start delighting in the grace which He abundantly lavished on us.
This belief redirects us from the cart before horse syndrome. What is that in this case? It is, "He loves us therefore we love Him, not us trying to get Him to love us.
Anything other than that is fleshly striving which leads to burnout, exhaustion and depression.
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