Have you lost your first love? Jesus rebuked the church at Ephesus because they had lost their first love for Him. To keep love going, we have to rekindle it, don’t we? God’s heart of love never changes toward us, but we need to keep our hearts close to Him and loving Him back. We do this by keeping in His Word, in prayer, and fellowshipping with the saints.
It seems that we are prone to losing the first fire of love It happens in marriages too. What is the current temperature of love in your marriage?
Is it hot and passionate or getting a little cold and boring?
Love doesn’t automatically keep hot without action. Without doing anything, it easily slips away.
Jesus told the Ephesus church to “repent, and DO the FIRST works”: (Revelation 2:5). The Passion translation says: “But I have this against you: you have abandoned the passionate love you had for me at the beginning. Think about how far you have fallen! Repent and do the works of love you did at first.”
Jesus never rebukes us without giving an answer. And here is the answer to returning to our first love to Jesus. We do what we did in the beginning.
It’s the same in our marriages. If our love toward our husband is waning, we don’t let it go on that way. We DO something. First of all, we repent! Then we start doing what we did when we first fell in love.
You wouldn’t be married unless you fell in love with your husband. When you fell in love with him, you spoke lovingly and kindly to him You spoke endearingly to him. Begin doing this again.
You were sweet to him. How sweet are you now?
You smiled at him and looked at him adoringly. Are you doing that when he talks to you now?
You wanted to be with him all the time and communicate with him? Are you communicating now?
When love has grown really cold, it can seem impossible to get back the first love. But do it one step at a time. You take the first step. You do one little thing you used to do. And then you take the next step and the next step and as you keep doing the things that made your husband fall in love with you at the beginning, it will restore that glorious love between you again.
In fact, it will be more glorious Older love is even more amazing than first love. Never be satisfied with lukewarm love. Go for the ultimate. It will happen if you do what God says.
Blessings to you today,
Nancy Campbell
Painting by Monika Lunick