First Love Lost

I have performed many wedding ceremonies. Each one had two people who seemed to have an extravagant love for each other. Each looked into other's eyes and could not believe that this person whom was loved without measure would marry them. Unfortunately, some of these people are no longer married.

How does that happen? The answer is that this sort of thing happens for many reasons. It generally happens because one or both lose what they had on their wedding day. They lose the love they had at first.

Losing your first love doesn't happen suddenly. It is not like an earthquake which transforms the landscape in hours. It is like erosion that takes a very long time. It comes when other things crowd out the love these two people have together. Eventually, the job, the house, the car, the tv and the children are more important than they are to each other.

The only defense is to recognize that this will naturally happen and take special care to recognize and counter it. It is easy to lose the love you once had. It has to be guarded or it will be gone.

Is this any different from the love that we have for our Lord? No. Those of us who gave our hearts to Christ as adults (or at least old enough to be considered adults) remember the euphoria we felt as new believers. We told of our new faith to our lost friends because we saw it as something they would surely want to join us in. We served our Lord without question. We called Him Lord because He was our Lord.

But, just like our relationships with our spouses, we allowed other things to creep in and choke out the love we once had. We started to claim time, money and interests for ourselves. Suddenly, the job, the house, the car, tv and making our children happy became more important than our Lord. Our love waned and we didn't notice it.

We didn't notice because, just like with our spouses, we kept doing those things which appeared to reveal a good relationship.We kept going to church. (We kept living with our spouses.) We had times of exceptional worship. (We kept a physical intimacy with our spouses.) We gave and served. (We still washed the dishes or the car and we went out to eat with our spouses.) Everything looked great but the love that we once had was not there anymore.

Now, no one else knows that we have lost our first love. That is, no one but our Lord.

The Bible says that we should go back to doing the things that we did when we had our first love. Could that be a solution for our relationship with our Lord and with our spouses?

I think so.

So, have you lost your first love?

Revelation 2:4-5 (NIV)
⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. ⁵  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.