First love
Revelation 2:4 “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.”
Few words that I read from this chapter about returning back to ‘first love for God’ kind of jolted me, I shared the sermon at our 5am Booster group, that I share here too. The Lord warned:
‘Consider how far 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!’ Warning comes from the Lord for those who are living zombie lives having moved away from first love. The Lord says, ‘I know your works’ – period. No manipulation tactics with Him. I know how people give me excuses when I call them for weekly meetings or early morning meetings, they would have excuses at the tip of their tongue; nevertheless, God knows it all. If only you have first love for Christ, you would cross every barrier, hindrances, blockages and make it to the meetings. Not because Bala Samson will get angry but because you love Him. Amen. Clap hands for God!
The Lord talks about some good qualities like: you have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary…..but still you have FALLEN. Gosh, when you have no first love, God considers you fallen. Warning! You don’t need a battalion of people to provoke, goad, stir and push you to wake up in the morning to pray, if you love God, you would automatically and by routine wake up and pray. Early morning prayer should become part and parcel of your life, are you listening? Be the Sunshine of your family, wake them up for prayer, make them sit for night prayer, if you procrastinate, then God would send locusts (COVID) to wake you up. I remember a day in my life as a youngster, the eldest of three daughters with a very sick father, early morning at around 3.30 am, my father got very ill unable to breathe, we did not have money to take him to the hospital, in the dark I had to run on the road to my colleague’s house to borrow money for auto. These are called locusts! Are you listening? Years later, after afflictions, sorrows and hurts, I found my Father Jesus, no way would I leave Him for anything of this world…..
While I was worshiping in the church one day, filled with gratitude towards God, suddenly I felt myself just hugging Jesus, holding Him and just telling Him, “thank you Jesus” and I want more of You. Tears were flowing down my cheek and I was crying my heart out to God. . I was shaking all over, oblivious to the massive crowd around me. It was an intimate moment of God and me, nobody knew of my joyful personal encounter with God. I was not going to leave Him! I embraced Him with my arms and I placed my head on His shoulders! Can you be this intimate with God? Yes, you can!
