HAVE YOU LOST THAT “LOVIN FEELING”?
Revelation 2:4,5 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
Jesus begins telling the church at Ephesus that he is very proud of them because of their hard work, perseverance, they have even tested some apostles and found them to be false,and then he praises them for enduring hardship for him and not grown weary. If Jesus would have only stopped here the church in Ephesus would have went down in history a something to be greatly praised and emulated. But then comes verse 4 and 5. They had lost their first love. There may be some question to what their first love was, but we know it is not working hard for the church, staying a Christian even after being persecuted or strong in their doctrine. I personally believe that their first love was their first love. It was their love for Jesus and their passion for him. Even today this is not an uncommon thing in the church as a whole. People come to Jesus and they are caught up in passionate love and appreciation for their new found hope, joy and peace in him. They find in Jesus someone that could do for them what they couldn’t do for themselves, and this was bring about their forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Their guilt was replaced with peace of mind and soul. Their hope is now sure, because it no longer rested on their moment by moment efforts to be good enough. They are filled with joy over the reality that God loves them so much that he would endure death of the cross. To put it in the terms of the romantic, they were totally, helplessly in love with Jesus. They found the love of their life, and couldn’t take their eyes and thoughts off of him. They were bonkers over Jesus! But then things changed. I have seen it in so many churches that I served Jesus at, and the evidence of it was demonstrated in the board meetings and even prayers prayed. Something had taken the place of the love of their life. They had went from being the church, to doing the things of the church. The posture of the servant went to one of leadership and control, and to one of listening to the voice of those who gave the biggest donation. It went from being lost in pray, to hours of planning programs and work. The focus of the church and many within the church had changed. It went from vertical to horizontal.
We don’t have to go very far to see this in many homes. The once young couple that couldn’t keep their hands off each other, and got lost as they gazed in each other's eyes barely have time for a quick, “Have good day” on the way to work. Attention for each other is replaced by the newspaper or TV program. The little baby that we cradled in our arms and never wanted to put down is now yelled at and told to go to their room. Even the puppy we loved so much we scoot off the couch, and told to go get in it’s bed.
Where did it go wrong for them? Why did they lose their first love? Well, they didn’t lose their first love, they just let other things take the place of their first love. The same thing can happen with our relationship with Jesus.
Jesus didn’t leave his throne in glory to become human and endure rejection, hatred and the cross just so someone would build him a nice building that would make him appear great. Jesus is God, he is and always will be more than great, more than what we can put in words. Jesus came for us! He wanted what had become estranged to be reconciled once again. It was always God’s desire for humanity to have a intimate, personal, loving relationship with him. It was his desire to never leave the garden without us by his side. But sin drove a wedge between us. It became our will or his will and our will won out. At least for some.
When we came to the reality that our good works could never undo the sin that we had done, and that even when we did do something good we were only doing what we were created to do, we found the hand of Jesus reaching down to us. With arms opened wide he embraced us and drew us to him. His love filled our heart and all the guilt and hopelessness began to melt away. The touch of Jesus upon our heart made possible a new love and appreciation for him that we had never known for anyone or anything. Jesus became our all in all!
So how do we get it all back once we have lost that “Lovin Feeling”? Well, all we have to do is what Jesus told the church at Ephesus. We go back to doing those things we did at first. We can do it with our spouses, children, the passion for our work or really anything. With Jesus it means getting our eyes back on him. When I retired I kind of resented it, and missed all that I did as a pastor. But one day while sitting in my “man cave”, I heard the whisper of Jesus asking me if I wanted to come sit at his feet. Even when I first became a Christian I enjoyed being in his presence whether it was at church, reading the Bible, at a prayer meeting or singing songs to him. I always wanted to be like Mary and John sitting at Jesus’ feet. My only hope was that when I went to be with him I might see him. To sit at his feet seemed more than I could hope for after knowing so many wonderful Christians. Little did I know or think that there is always plenty of room at the feet of Jesus for those who want to be there. And I do! Go ahead as ask me if I’ve got that “Lovin Feeling” again? Yep!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, we love you! Please keep us close to your heart, and help us to never let our love for you to grow cold. We ask this in your holy name.
