Take Me Back

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.

Consider how far you have fallen!

Repent and do the things you did at first.”

Revelation 2:4-5a

 

Perhaps some of you reading this blog are ‘seasoned saints’.

By that I mean you have walked with the Lord for quite some time.

If you are (and I count myself among that group) it can sometimes be hard to relate to the joy and zeal evident in the new believer.

We can easily forget the great love we had for the Lord.

That same excitement we once knew now causes us concern when we find it in others.

We seek to justify our complacency by telling the new believer not to be ‘too wild’.

We forget we were once the recipients of that very same advice.

When we received it we vowed to never become like those offering the ‘counsel’ to us.

Our walk with Jesus was so new and so exciting.

It is possible to continue in that fresh and exciting walk with Him.

We need not became stale or forsake our first love.

Jesus tells us how with three words: consider, repent and do!

“Consider how far you have fallen…”

We find in that counsel the need for self-examination of our spiritual condition.  

As we examine our actions and allow the Holy Spirit to bring conviction we come to the second step.

“Repent…”

That’s a word we often shudder at and yet it is a word that when we practice it, it restores communion with the Lord.

Finally,

“…do the things you did at first.”

Those head-over-heels, so in love with the Lord that you didn’t care what others thought, kinds of things.

Remember those?

Remember back then?

No, we are not called to ‘go back in time’ but we are called to return to our first love.

As I was considering today’s blog post message I was reminded of an old song, the writer of which just went home to be with the Lord.

Consider the lyrics written by Andre Crouch decades ago.

“Take me back, take me back dear Lord

To the place where I first received you.

Take me back, take me back dear Lord where I First believed.

As you ask God to ‘take you back’ to your first love He will propel you forward into new and fresh places with Him!