When we were saved, when we believed into the Lord for the first time, we had eyes for the Lord Jesus only, and we didn’t see anything or anyone else but Him.
Actually, when we were saved we entered into a love relationship with the Lord, into a life-union with Him, where we love Him and we give Him the first place in all things.
But then as we go on in the human life and as we grow more and more in the divine life we realize that there are many things that try to come between us and the Lord! Things and persons, situations and careers, golden futures and matters – get in the way, trying to distract us from the Lord… but we turn to Him again and again, repent, confess, and are being brought into a deeper union and dependence on Him.
This is the story of our Christian life times and times again.
The Lord becomes nearer and dearer, more precious as the day goes by, and we are “simply trusting every day”, daily returning to our spirit, daily repenting and confessing, and daily being brought on in our oneness with the Lord organically….
Today I was impressed while enjoying the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization-study of Isaiah (2) with the fact that the degradation in the churches comes in when we leave our first love for the Lord (Rev. 2:4).
Why do we lose our first love for Him? If we do not love the Lord with our first love, this is a sign that we have some kind of idol – whatever we love more than the Lord is an idol. It is one thing to have things or matters, situations or persons, coming between us and the Lord – and then we clear this up with the Lord in repentance; it is something further and more subtle when something becomes an idol to us.
An idol doesn’t necessarily refer to something outside of us – in Ezek. 14:3 it says, Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts. Those who set up idols in their hearts are enstranged from the Lord through their idols. Whatever we love more than the Lord is an idol.
Be it a scholarship, a good education, money, clothing, music, a wife or a jusband, children, etc – anything or anyone we love more than the Lord is an idol! Please notice that in themselves these things are NOT sinful or something we don’t need to have / use / be involved with.
We need things, persons, situations, etc – but whenever something becomes more important to us than the Lord, that is an idol! This is the source of degradation – having something that replaces the Lord in our being, something that becomes more important to us than the Lord – and we lose our first love for Him…
We need to see that there is a connection between not loving the Lord with our first love and having idols in our heart! Just like we saw before, we need to be on the alert and guard ourselves from all vain replacements for our genuine and true God! Things in this world, even things that we need for our human life, can become something that replaces the Lord as the First and the Best one in us.
Even our work for the Lord, our Bible Study, or our “ministry for the Lord” can be something that takes the Lord’s place in our heart. Tozer once said that if the Lord Jesus would come into a conference of Christian leaders, they would not recognize Him… – it can be common for Christians to love so many other things than the Lord Jesus Himself!
We need to come to the Lord and pray that He would free our heart from any entanglements and release us from any idol that we may love Him supremely! If we lose our first love for the Lord, our best love for Him, this will bring us into degradation and will enstrange us from Him…
The first step towards the decline of the church is not something BIG or SINFUL, it is just allowing something or someone to replace the Lord as the first one in us, something or someone we may love more than the Lord…
Lord, we give You our heart! Free our heart from anything that would hinder it from loving You supremely! Lord, we want to love You with our best love! Our first love and our best love is for You! Save us from any idols, Lord, save us from anything or anyone that would take Your place in our heart! We consecrate ourselves afresh to You – we just open our heart to You and give You the ground in us! Rekindle our love for You! Draw us more, Lord, and show us Your beauty in a fresh way! We love You, Lord, and we just give You our heart!
Oh Lord Jeus! You're our first love. You're the One we love the best. But as we go on, we've been drawn off by many things. Forgive us Lord, now we want to turn our heart back to You!