How do we know if we’ve lost our first love? What can we do about it if we have? This devotion looks at some questions we can ask ourselves and then reminds us of the three instructions Jesus gave the church at Ephesus.
Nuggets
- Losing our first love for God shows that something is wrong with our hearts.
- Jesus equated our losing our heart love to salt losing its saltiness.
To read a devotion in the First Love series, click on the button below.
In the first devotion in this series, we talked about how Jesus accused the Ephesian church of losing its first love. Losing our first love shows we have a damaged relationship with God. That is going to steal our joy. It is going to open us up for correction.
Even though on the surface they were doing everything right, the church at Ephesus had a problem at their core. This was a big problem.
A Heart Love
Losing our first love for God shows that something is wrong with our hearts. And we know that “… the Lord looks at the heart” (I Sam. 16: 7 NLT).
We’ve talked about the greatest commandment before. Depending on which book you read, it is love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
We’ve talked in Peace, Mercy, and Love about God’s peace, mercy and love is at our center. Our center is considered our hearts. That is our foundation.
Also, we’ve talked in The Fullness of God’s Love about how Jesus is the Word (Jn. 1: 1) that we are to hide in our hearts (Ps. 119: 11). Jesus is a major part of that foundation.
To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.
We are to love God with all our hearts — not a worldly love, but a godly love. We are to give God the top spot in our hearts and lives. He doesn’t want to share us with things of this world.
Our hearts have to open to allow Jesus to take full residence within them. We lose our first love when we either don’t allow Him full control or we kick Him out after a while.
But Is It a Salt Issue?
Jesus talked about losing our heart love. He equated it to salt losing its saltiness.
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet” (Mt. 5: 13 CSB).
I read a couple of things to try to get a handle on this. Davis and Good had an informative sermon. I am just going to give you the link below so you can read it for yourselves.
Christlieb reminded us about the nourishment and preservation properties of salt. Maclaren and Winslow said, “Salt does its work by being brought into close contact with the thing which it is to work upon.”
I was just tripping over what Maclaren and Winslow said. “The decay of the inner life, as manifested in the impaired vigour of Christian influence, figuratively set forth by the ‘salt that hath lost its savour,’ and its consequent unprofitableness. The salt may again be salted — the inner life may be revived.”
How can Maclaren and Winslow say our relationship with God can be restored when Jesus said it can’t? I think it is degrees.
Jesus said, “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter” (Mt. 7: 21 NLT). That goes along with the lost saltiness and won’t get it back concept.
Now, whether we can lose our salvation, or we never had it in the first place is for another devotion in the queue. For now, let’s just say some who think they are fine really aren’t.
Does our relationship with God have its ups and downs — because of us? Yes. That doesn’t mean we have lost our saltiness. We repent, grow, and mend our relationships, and things are fine.
Can we, after a salvation experience, make the decision to break that relationship? Maybe God didn’t answer a prayer the way we wanted, and we say we’re done. Yes, I can see that happening. I would put that under the unpardonable sin — unbelief.
To read a related devotion, click the appropriate button below.
Making the Connections
We many times just see God as a forgiving God. We think He is just always going to forgive us — some of us think whether we ask or not.
I see God as a loving and forgiving God. He knows we aren’t going to be perfect, but He calls us to be. Still, God has His boundaries. If we don’t try, we slip to the far from the perfect side.
Maybe some of us feel that, because God gives us or allows the consequences to happen, He hasn’t forgiven us.
It doesn’t work that way. God will correct us if we deserve it.
God expects us to love Him and do His Will. We want to do that in our first love. We should always want to do that.
How Do We Apply This?
So, how do we determine if we are losing/have lost our first love? Occasionally, we have to give ourselves a heart checkup. We have to take stock and see where we are.
- Has God been removed from our center?
- Are we no longer concerned about what
- God thinks about our lives?
- Has our prayer life been suffering?
- Are we not reading God’s Word as we should?
- Are we not applying what we read to our lives?
- Are we compromising more with the worldview?
- Do we need a memory boost?
- Do we have unconfessed sins?
- Have our relationships with God become habitual or ritualistic?
- Are we just going through the motions?
- Has our pride become an issue?
- Have we lost our willingness to sacrifice for God?
- Do we love others as the world loves instead of as Jesus loved?
- Are we rarely evaluating our relationship with God?
- Are we selfish?
- Do we frequently miss going to God’s house?
- Are we tired of our work for the Lord?
Give each “yes” answer a point and add them up. The higher the sum is, the more we have lost our first love.
Related Links
I have created a worksheet of the questions above. Click on the button below to access it.
What can we do if we got a higher number than we want?
“Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (Rev. 2: 5-6 CSB)
Remember
I know. It amazes me how often these topics pop up.
God wants us to remember. He wants us to think about how good we had it — and what we’ve given up.
But it isn’t just hey-think-about-that-time. It is evaluate yourself relationship with God then and compare it to your relationship now. Then, do something about it.
To read related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
Repent
How do we restore our relationship with God? We repent.
Oh, yeah. We’re going to have a lot of repenting to do after the initial ABC. The D part is going to have a lot of times when we don’t do what God wants. So, we will have to repent again.
But remember, repentance is expressing sorrow for things we’ve done wrong. But it is not just feeling sorry for doing those things. It is making the commitment to changing ourselves so that we no longer do the wrong things.
We’ve got to turn away from how we are living and head back to our first love. We aren’t just spectators. We are called to be participants.
That may mean giving up some things. Maybe we have to do some things differently. Maybe we have to do more of some things.
Return
We have to go back to doing what we did when we first believed. Yes, we have to do the searching and seeking. But it is also the affection, energy, and disposition that Beddome described.
It is not only doing God’s Will — it is doing it first (Essex Remembrancer). It isn’t a when-we-get-around-to-it. It is a priority.
God wants us to keep focused on Him. He doesn’t want us sliding away from our first love. He wants our relationship not only to remain strong but also to grow.
Father God. Forgive us for taking our focus off of You. We want our first love back. We remember how it used to be – and want to return to that wonderful relationship that we had with You. We repent that we allowed our heart love for You to be damaged. We commit to returning to You. Amen.
What do you think?
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