FIRST LOVE
I have heard on many occasion, numerous admonitions, or entreaties, if you will, in which someone is reminding us to "come back to our first love." Many a preacher, and even in the beloved scriptures, there is a warning to all believers to not loose sight of their "first love." Sometimes when a person hears something it rings true but doesn't always penetrate into your heart and even further into affecting your daily life. This has been true with me when I have heard this saying, for my usual response was always one of "that is not applicable to me because I haven't forgotten my first love". And who is that "first love" anyway? Scripture tells us it is Jesus. I assumed that reminder was for those people that seem to forget about Him all together, those poor souls that although they claim to have received Him into their hearts, show little if no sign at all that He is in them. How easily deceived, and sometimes innocently enough, are we to assume that the Lord's admonition to "remember our first love" is only for those who do not conduct themselves in a manner befitting a true Christian. Just when I didn't expect it, God chose to bring that old saying back into my remembrance, out of nowhere really. Therefore, I went with it, asking in my mind "what does that really mean anyway, because it really hasn't meant much to me before."
It is simply this: returning to our first love means that me must drop all of our religiosity and self made righteousness and return to the very relationship that brought us to Him in the first place. We know that when we witness to people that don't know the Lord, we are quick to point out (and rightly so) that knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior is NOT about religion, it is about RELATIONSHIP. Isn't that what He uses to draw us close to Him? Upon salvation, most people do not entertain the possibility of giving oneself to Christ so that they can follow a new set of rules. His grace and love and mercy are what calls us ever so strongly to Him. He says very clearly, COME AND FOLLOW ME, not come and follow my rules!!!!
So with that in mind, I thought a little further, and realized that the statement to return to your first love, was not hard to imagine, and it DID apply to me, and it DOES change my life. It does so because it sets me free!!!!!!!!! It sets me free because it calls me back to the relationship that drew me to Christ, and saved me in the first place. At times it seems a very tall order when scripture tells us to continue our Christian lives in the same way in which we came to Him, and boy let me tell you I have wrestled with that one more times than I want to admit. Even though I believe wholly in the Grace of God, and that only Through Him I can live the Christian life, I have been caught up in TRYING to live by faith, trying to be good, trying not to blow my witness around others, trying to be something that is impossible without His provision.
All along the truth has been right in front of me with the most simple thing of all, JUST LIVE EACH DAY WITH THE AWARENESS THAT ALL I HAVE TO DO IS HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH MY FATHER. WHAT DOES A RELATIONSHIP ENTAIL? Just spending time getting to know one another and communication (through the word, fellowship, prayer and worship). That's it. The only way we can become like Him anyway is to be indwelt by Him, abandon ourselves to Him, and trust in and rely on Him. And honestly that doesn't frighten me, that doesn't seem too hard to do, and I actually look forward to that, and there are something's in the Christian life that I haven't looked to forward to. I truly believe that if Christians would just keep that simple truth in mind, which is just to live the Christian life in a relationship with a living God, then we truly would show ourselves to be His. And not because we say and do the right things, but because His righteousness would be freely and sincerely flowing through us. People would see sincerity, not religion and judgementalism. People would WANT to know this Jesus with whom a relationship with can touch and change their lives. His forgiveness and love is everlasting. Praise God for the simplicity of Christ!!!
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