Loving the Lord with the First Love to Enjoy Christ and have His Present Presence

We need to be those who are loving the Lord with the first love so that we may enjoy Christ and have His present presence today.

The way for us to enjoy the Lord is to love Him and to love one another; we need to be flooded with the love of Christ so that we may love Him, for the more we love Him, the richer the church life will be and the more we enjoy the hidden and deep things God has prepared for us. Amen!

On the one hand, God is faithful to call us into the fellowship of His Son so that we may enjoy Christ as our God-allotted portion.

On the other hand, we need to give ourselves to love the Lord and love the saints so that we may enjoy the Lord to the uttermost.

Many times we believers in Christ go through suffering and hardships, and we think that, since we believe into the Lord, we should be spared from such sufferings.

We may have the natural concept that now that we love the Lord, everything will be alright, and sufferings and hardships will not be our portion.

But if we look at the life of the Lord Jesus and also at the life of Paul, they were all the times being persecuted, evil spoken of, and rejected, and their life was full of suffering.

Human life is full of sufferings and, no matter how much we try to avoid them, sufferings and hardships will come.

But we as believers in Christ know that God is faithful in allowing us to have troubles so that we learn not to trust in ourselves but in Him!

Even more, He wants to gain an opening in our being so that we may enjoy Christ, absorb Christ, drink Christ, and eat and assimilate Christ.

If everything is alright and we experience no hardship or loss, we may be quite complacent and languish in the good land.

But the Lord is faithful not only in giving us Christ as our portion but also in allowing many things to happen to us and around us to lead us in His economy for us to enjoy Christ and absorb Him.

The more we enjoy Christ by opening to Him in this way, even though outwardly the situation is not that positive, the more we become the increase of Christ for His corporate expression.

Paul was such a person. When he went to Philippi to preach the gospel, he was persecuted and even put in prison; however, even in prison in the middle of the night, while having their feet in stocks in the inner prison, Paul and his co-worker were singing and preaching the gospel.

Later when he wrote to the Philippians, he could say, Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say, rejoice!

This he said not as a theory or doctrine but because this is the way he lived and behaved.

May we take every opportunity, whether positive or negative, to just enjoy Christ and love Him to the uttermost.

Loving the Lord with the First Love to Enjoy the Deep Things of God and have His Present Presence

According to the book of 1 Corinthians, the way to enjoy the Lord is to love Him (2:9-10; 16:22) and to love one another (13:1-8).

In 1 Cor. 2:9 we are told that God has certain things prepared for those who love Him; these things are such as the eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not come up in man’s heart.

But to us, v. 10 says, God has revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

1 Cor. 16:22 further says that, if anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed; the Lord comes. Wow, what a verse!

We need to love the Lord so that we may enjoy Him.

Loving the Lord is the indispensable requirement for enabling us to enter into His heart and apprehend all its secrets and for our realization of and participation in the deep and hidden things that God has ordained and prepared for us (1 Cor. 2:9-10; Matt. 22:37-38; Psa. 73:25; 116:1-2).

Yes, we do need to fear God and worship God, and we need to believe in God – that is, to receive God, but all these are inadequate; loving the Lord is the indispensable requirement.

And to love the Lord doesn’t just mean that we tell Him we love Him; it means that we set our entire being – our spirit, our soul, and our body, with our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength (Mark 12:30) – absolutely on Him! Amen!

This means that we need to let our entire being be occupied with the Lord and lost in Him so that He becomes everything to us and we are one with Him practically in our daily life.

When we do this, when we give ourselves to love the Lord by setting our whole being on Him, we will have the closest and most intimate fellowship with God, and we are able to enter into His heart and apprehend all its secrets (Psa. 73:25; 25:14).

Loving the Lord is the requirement for us to know the heart of the Lord and to realize and participate in the deep and hidden things God has prepared for us.

When we love the Lord, we enjoy HIm to the uttermost; the content of the church life depends on the enjoyment of Christ.

The more we enjoy the Lord, the richer the content of the church life will be; however, to enjoy the Lord requires that we love Him with the first love (Rev. 2:4-5, 7).

May we be those who are loving the Lord with the first love, even praying that the Lord would rekindle our love for Him!

When we lose our first love the Lord, when we leave our best love for Him, degradation comes in.

May we be saved from any degradation that creeps in by our not loving the Lord and may we love the Lord with the first love, the best love, by giving Him the preeminence in all things (Col. 1:18b; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Mark 12:30; Psa. 73:25-26).

Loving the Lord with the first love doesn’t mean only that we need to love Him with the love we first had toward Him when He saved us; it means to love Him with the best love.

As we love the Lord and develop our love for Him, our love for Him grows and becomes stronger and more stable.

The first love for the Lord is the best love, the love that gives Him the first place in everything.

In big things and in small things, we give Him the first place.

For example, we are about to purchase something, and because we love the Lord, we give Him the first place.

We are about to have some dessert and, because we love Him, we give Him the first place.

In the way we interact with our family members, we need to give Him the first place.

When we respond to our wife or husband, when we speak to our children, and when we talk to our neighbours and friends, we need to give the Lord the first place.

We need to practice this; we need to practice loving the Lord with the first love.

The very life that we receive when we believe in the Lord is a person, and the only way to apply this person and enjoy Him is by loving Him with the first love (John 11:25; 14:5-6; 1 Tim. 1:14; John 14:21, 23; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Rev. 2:4-7; Col. 1:18b; Rom. 6:4; 7:6).

When we love someone, we forget everything and everyone else and just love that person.

We forget everything of the past and we overlook any failures and mistakes, for we love him.

Similarly, with the Lord, we need to forget about anything else and just love Him.

We need to have a fresh and new contact with the Lord every day to enjoy His present presence at this very moment and day by day.

We may have touched Him yesterday or this morning, but we want to touch Him and have His present presence right now.

Therefore, we need to forget what is of the past, forget even our past experiences and enjoyment, and stretch forward to enjoy Him in a fresh way by loving the Lord with the first love.

We need the Lord’s presence right now, in the present.

No matter how much we have known Him and experienced Him in the past, we want a new contact with Christ all day, even moment by moment. For this, we tell the Lord,

Lord Jesus, we love You! Oh Lord, we just love You. We forget about everything and everyone else and just focus our whole being on You. We put ourselves aside and deny ourselves, and we take You as our life and as our everything. We set our whole being with our spirit, soul, body, heart, mind, and strength absolutely on You! Occupy our being, Lord, so that we may be lost in You by loving the Lord with the first love. Oh Lord, You are everything to us and we are one with You! We want to remain in the closest and most intimate fellowship with You today. We love to be in Your present presence. We do not rely on our experience and knowledge of You from the past; we forget everything else and come to You afresh to be in Your presence right now, at this present moment. Lord Jesus, we love You! We want to have a new contact with You to enjoy Your present presence at this very moment and day by day! How we love You, dear Lord Jesus!

Praying that the Lord would show us His Love and Constrain us with His Love for us to Love Him, Enjoy Him, and Live to Him

The most wonderful way and the most enjoyable way for us to enjoy the Lord is by loving the Lord with the first love.

Many times, however, we do not feel like loving the Lord, for there are so many other things that attract us and distract us from the Lord Himself.

When we spend time with the Lord, we are simply touched by Him and we love Him, and He is so sweet to us.

But it seems that, when we go and do this or that, our heart is drawn by so many other things, persons, and matters.

2 Cor. 5:14 says that the love of Christ constrains us.

Once we see the love of Christ, we are constrained to no longer live to ourselves but to the Lord, the One who loved us and gave Himself up to us.

Loving the Lord with the first love equips us to be the ambassadors of Christ.

We need to see the love of Christ and be constrained by the love of Christ.

We must be persons who are flooded with the love of Christ.

The divine love should be like the rushing tide of great waters toward us, impelling us to live to the Lord and love Him to the uttermost, even beyond our own control.

In the world, people are able to do many wonderful and great things because of their love for someone or for the country.

Such love does not compare with the love we have toward the Lord when we’re constrained by His love.

When the Lord’s love constrains us, we wil live to Him, and we are able to do things for Him beyond our own control.

We need to let the Lord’s love flow into us and constrain us. His tide of love flows like a mighty river, like a flood.

When flooding takes place, nothing can stand against the tide; the tide is so strong that people, cars, and even houses cannot stop it.

Such a tide needs to sweep us away and carry us to love the Lord beyond our own control.

The flood on earth is very damaging and destructive, but the flood of the Lord’s love is positive and constructive, for it impels us to live to the Lord even beyond our own control.

We need to pray that the Lord would show us His love and constrain us with His love so that we may love Him, enjoy Him, and live to Him.

The love of Christ needs to be as strong as a tide of water which overcomes us and carries us away. Amen!

We do this by coming to the Lord and opening to Him, even by asking Him to constrain us with His love and to reveal His love to us.

When we’re constrained by the Lord’s love, we have no choice.

We have no way to go and we have nowhere to go; we have to go along with the Lord’s desire, for His love has constrained us.

Two practical ways we can be renewed in our love for the Lord is morning by morning, and also at the Lord’s Table meeting.

Morning by morning we can open to the Lord and ask Him to flood us with His love, even to constrain us with His mighty love.

Then, at the Lord’s table meeting, we can exercise our spirit to touch the Lord in a fresh way, on the first day of the week, to remember His dying love and be constrained by His love.

Many of us can testify that we had such an experience in our Christian life, being flooded by the love of the Lord to such an extent that we have no choice but to give ourselves to Him.

There may have been a good job offer, a promotion at work, or some things that we could have gained, but because we were constrained by the Lord’s love, we could not take those things but just give ourselves to love the Lord.

The young people especially think that they will love the Lord forever, for right now they love the Lord; however, there are many crossroads, and many decisions for them to take by being constrained by the Lord’s love.

There are many directions for us to choose and take, and we have many choices.

When we are flooded by the love of Christ, we lose all the choices; we simply choose the Lord.

We will simply choose to dwell in the house of God and behold His beauty, inquire in His temple, and be with the Lord in His presence.

May we be those who are loving the Lord with the first love, even loving Him to the uttermost.

May we seek and desire to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our life to behold His loveliness, beauty, pleasantness, and delightfulness (Psa. 27:4).

It is good to bring this to the Lord and ask Him to do this in us, even to ask Him to constrain us with His love.

Lord Jesus, constrain us with your love. Flood us with Your love. May the mighty love of God constrain us to live to the Lord. Oh Lord Jesus, we love You. We love You because You first loved us. Your dying love is so compelling and we simply yield to You. We just love You, Lord Jesus! We are constrained by Your love and we cannot but love You and give in to You. We have no other way to go: we have to love the Lord because His love has constrained us! Yes, Lord, You have constrained us with Your love, and we are filled with love toward You! We come to You morning by morning to enjoy You, partake of Your riches, and be filled with your love! Amen, Lord Jesus, keep us loving the Lord with the first love moment by moment and day by day! Keep us coming to You and being flooded with Your love! We want to taste Your love!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by Ricky Acosta in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1972, vol. 1, “Life and Building as Portrayed in the Song of Songs,” ch. 1, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Enjoyment of Christ and our Growth in Life unto Maturity (2023 Thanksgiving Blending Conference), week 1, entitled, The Enjoyment of the All-inclusive Christ as the Unique Solution to All Problems in the Church.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Love the Lord Jesus, Rejoice and Exult, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – New song on, Loving the Lord with the First Love, via, Hymnal.net.
  – To overcome the leaving of the first love, a portion from, The Overcomers, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – 3 Simple Prayers to Rekindle Your Love for the Lord, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The first way to grow being to love the Lord, a portion from, Practical Lessons on the Experience of Life, Chapter 16, by Witness Lee.
  – What Does It Mean to Love God with All Your Heart? Read more via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Loving the Lord with the First Love, Enjoying the Lord as the Tree of Life, a message by Minoru Chen (video).
• Hymns on this topic:
  – O Jesus, Jesus, dearest Lord! / Forgive me if I say, / For very love, Thy sacred name / A thousand times a day. / O Jesus, Lord, with me abide; / I rest in Thee, whate’er betide; / Thy gracious smile is my reward; / I love, I love Thee, Lord! / I love Thee so I know not how / My transports to control; / Thy love is like a burning fire / Within my very soul. (Hymns #208 stanzas 1-2 and chorus)
  – Thy mighty love, O God, constraineth me, / As some strong tide it presseth on its way, / Seeking a channel in my self-bound soul, / Yearning to sweep all barriers away. / Shall I not yield to that constraining power? / Shall I not say, O tide of love, flow in? / My God, Thy gentleness hath conquered me, / Life cannot be as it hath hither been. (Hymns #431 stanzas 1-2)
  – Precious Lord, my flask of alabaster / Gladly now I break in love for Thee; / I anoint Thy head, Beloved Master; / Lord, behold, I’ve saved the best for Thee. / Dearest Lord, I waste myself upon Thee; / Loving Thee, I’m deeply satisfied. / Love outpoured from hidden depths within me, / Costly oil, dear Lord, I would provide. (Hymns #1159 stanza 3)