First Love Lost

 June 11, 2024

Tuesday

I guess I am amazed when people tell me that they don't love their spouses anymore. I really wonder how that happens. They tell me that they grew apart. They tell me that their spouses can't be trusted. They tell me that their spouses betrayed them. They have resentment toward these failures that they won't get over. They soon split over this.

But how is it that a church can lose its love for the Lord. Not many churches would admit this. They will say that they prove their love by what they are doing. "Our love is proved through our worship," they say. But if you go to the church they sing without any enthusiasm. They appear to go through the motions of observing the Lord's Supper. The invitation for people to receive Christ or join the church doesn't expect any decisions. The have become like many married people who live in the same household but have little affection for each other. 

Losing your first love doesn't mean that you aren't doctrinally sound. Churches who have solid doctrine die all the time. They hold onto their doctrine but do not seek the Lord's face. They neither expect His manifest presence nor would they welcome it. There is a fear that the service might go too long if the Lord showed up.

Losing your first love doesn't mean that these churches tolerate evil. They may have preached against evil and even addressed it in their members. They may have seminars on those who are false prophets and call them evil. Yet, they can't see that the failure to love is an evil when it involves the Lord. After all, they must be good and able to point out evil because they are so righteous.

Losing your first love doesn't mean that you are doing what you have always done. The programs that these churches did in 1963 are still in force today. It doesn't matter that no younger people have joined them in these programs. Again, young people just don't know what is important. These young people today are what the members of the church were when they were that age.

When these churches were in love with the Lord they worked to become doctrinally pure. They worked to see the Lord in their churches. They changed the way things were done to reach the people they have today. They worked to see new people in the church. And they worshiped with enthusiasm. The Lord's presence was depended upon at each worship service.

Can the first love be revived? Of course. It will take repentance from that which has become mundane to that which will seek the Lord. It will take repentance from a dead worship. It will take confession that the first love has been lost. It will take a commitment to restore that first love.

Nearly all churches lose their first love after some age has come into the church. That doesn't mean every member has waning love but the characteristic of the church is such. Prayer for church revival will mean that the people will regain their first love for the Lord. This may take time.

Will you be that prayer warrior that will pray that your church will restore her first love?

Revelation 2:1–5 (NASB 2020) ¹ “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: ² ‘I know your deeds and your labor and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people, and you have put those who call themselves apostles to the test, and they are not, and you found them to be false; ³ and you have perseverance and have endured on account of My name, and have not become weary. ⁴ But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ⁵ Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and I will remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.