Can you remember the day that you gave your life to Christ? Do you remember those early days of your walk with God? I do. We were on fire for Him and some of us, still are. How our eyes were fixed on Jesus, as we searched for understanding. How our hearts was so full of love for God that we thought it would just burst open. How our hands and arms would be lifted up in praise to Him. How our eyes would shed tears of joy with thankfulness and the pure pleasure of being in His presence. How our knees would bend in our worship and in our prayer to Him, for His love and forgiveness, while we were yet repenting. What happened? What really happened to some of us and our relationship with God? This reminds me of the scripture in Revelation 2:3-5, “I know you are patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.” God is telling us that, you have gotten so caught up into the church and the busyness of it, that you forgot what the church is really about. You are about ministry, but not about His ministry. What happen? You use to tell God how much you love Him and He felt it before you said it. You are loving the business, of ministry, but not loving Him. You are leaving your best love behind. We had an intimate relationship, a very personal relationship, with God. That close, intimate, personal relationship, is all important to Him, and God wants it back. He misses the desperate longing for Him. The, I can’t wait to know you better relationship, you had for him. That, focused, well spent time and that special devotion time, you gave Him. That hungry time you spent studying His word. The joy you found in your prayer closet and that searching and intercessory prayer for others. He want you to stop being “busy bodies”, being busy for everyone, except for Him. He want you to stop making the church a business. He want you to put him back where he belongs, by placing Him as the Head of the church, and cater to Him. He is not saying not to do ministry, He is saying, ministry is all about Him. He needs for us to put everything back into it’s proper prospective, and that is placing Him first. He is the business of the church. God’s love for us has never changed and will never diminish. He wants you back as you were. He misses that zeal you had for Him. That excitement you showed and that longing to get closer to Him. God doesn’t want an abbreviated version of you. He wants all of you. Do you remember when you met “the love of your life”? The newness of that relationship brought about special emotions and an overwhelming desire of affection. You remember, right? But as time passed, the newness wore off. Then you sat and wonder what happen? The thrill was gone! You wanted to know how could you recapture those feelings? That’s what God is saying to us. He is saying that he needs us to recapture that feeling for him. He is telling us that we have left our first love. He is pleading for us to return our love back to Him. He says, “…or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove the candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” (Revelation 2:5). When you refuse to use the light that God has in you, he doesn’t mind using the sniffer, to put out the light, when you refuse to give the light. When the church becomes all about making it a business, instead of what God meant for it to be, He will snife the light out. Repent! Repentance means to turn back to Him, and it is the message for believers. Remember, repent, and return unto God.
