Excerpts from the first sermon of 2022 for January 9-16 time of prayer and fasting.
2022 Fast Days Devotional
Day 6 - To begin again, return to your first love.
Revelation 2:3–5 ESV
3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
The problem with love is that it is too simple - we make it complicated. At first, love is easy -we’re overtaken by the joy of knowing God. Just like falling in love with that person who seems to fulfill our of our dreams.
Love is grand, when it’s innocent. But then we start to have doubts. We begin to take people for granted. We begin to see their problems and the issues. Even with God - God doesn’t have issues, but we project our issues on to God.
Somewhere along the line we begin to get defensive - we still try to love, but we feel the need to protect ourselves. We still say that we love God and others, but we love from behind walls. That’s when God says, “you have forsaken your first love.”
When I was married for the first time, the pastor told us at pre-marital counseling. You’re in love now and preoccupied with getting married and starting a life together. But come back and see me when things start to get tough, because they will!
Well, for us it was about two years until disillusionment set in. I went back to him with my complaints about how this was not the same person I married. Then he asked me if I was still doing the same things that I did at first? Obviously not!
All of the things that we did during courtship were to win the other’s favor. Now that we were married, all of that was over. But that’s when we realized that we needed to keep doing what we were doing it we wanted to keep the relationship alive and growing.
Begin again, for many of us simply means renewing our commitment to doing what we did at first. It’s not starting over, but starting again because something stopped along the way. Maybe its because you were putting so much of your own effort into it that it was difficult to maintain?
Loving God should be energizing, and gives us the ability to love others well. The instruction is to repent - turn back to God as your source. Recognize that you have been trying to do on your own what should come from God. Love should flow from our being as our life flows from God.
Remember a time when you were in love with God or with someone.
2022 Fast Days Devotional
Day 6 - To begin again, return to your first love.
Revelation 2:3–5 ESV
3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
The problem with love is that it is too simple - we make it complicated. At first, love is easy -we’re overtaken by the joy of knowing God. Just like falling in love with that person who seems to fulfill our of our dreams.
Love is grand, when it’s innocent. But then we start to have doubts. We begin to take people for granted. We begin to see their problems and the issues. Even with God - God doesn’t have issues, but we project our issues on to God.
Somewhere along the line we begin to get defensive - we still try to love, but we feel the need to protect ourselves. We still say that we love God and others, but we love from behind walls. That’s when God says, “you have forsaken your first love.”
When I was married for the first time, the pastor told us at pre-marital counseling. You’re in love now and preoccupied with getting married and starting a life together. But come back and see me when things start to get tough, because they will!
Well, for us it was about two years until disillusionment set in. I went back to him with my complaints about how this was not the same person I married. Then he asked me if I was still doing the same things that I did at first? Obviously not!
All of the things that we did during courtship were to win the other’s favor. Now that we were married, all of that was over. But that’s when we realized that we needed to keep doing what we were doing it we wanted to keep the relationship alive and growing.
Begin again, for many of us simply means renewing our commitment to doing what we did at first. It’s not starting over, but starting again because something stopped along the way. Maybe its because you were putting so much of your own effort into it that it was difficult to maintain?
Loving God should be energizing, and gives us the ability to love others well. The instruction is to repent - turn back to God as your source. Recognize that you have been trying to do on your own what should come from God. Love should flow from our being as our life flows from God.