Rediscovering Our First Love: Rekindling Our Relationship with God

Recently, I’ve been thinking about how easy it is for us to lose our first love. This can apply first and foremost to our relationship with the Lord, but it also extends to our relationships with other people, our job, our school or any area of life we find ourselves in.

Biblical Foundation: Jesus’ Instruction

This idea of first love comes from Jesus’ instruction in Revelation 2:4-5,

“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”

A sober statement for sure, but one that is necessary.

Here, Jesus is talking to the church of Ephesus. He starts off by commending this church for their labor and perseverance for His sake. This church clearly endured many trials, but still kept going in the work of the Lord. However, in all of this serving, they had lost their first love and first works.

Recognizing Distractions and Pain

Jesus is our first love.

I believe two ways we can lose our first love for the Lord are distraction and pain.

It’s easy for us to be distracted from simple devotion to Jesus especially when we are in ministry. We can get so busy serving Him that we forget to simply be with Him for no other reason than to love Him. No agenda, no strings attached.

Sometimes, it may not be that we are distracted by ministry. We can also lose our first love through the trials of life that cause our hearts to become hardened by pain, trauma, grief and lost hope.

Remembering Our First Encounter with Jesus

To come back to our first love, our first works and our first faith, we must remember where we began.

• Where did you begin with Jesus?

• What did you love about Him?

• What did you have faith for?

• What did you do after you met Him?

The answers to these questions help us remember the past, not to go back there, but to use that as a foundation to build upon for the future. To keep or reignite our first love, we need to always remember our initial encounter with Jesus and then grow from there.

We are reigniting the flame of our love for Him when we realize where we’ve lost it and remember what we first experienced with Him.

My Personal Journey

For me, it was a specific Bible verse that pulled me into devotion to the Lord. Little did I know that in years following, I would need to hold onto this initial innocence of love for Him when everything in my life seemed to scream the opposite.

Practical Steps to Cultivate Your First Love

Some ways I have found to be very helpful in keeping my first love for the Lord are:

• Finding worship songs that resonate with your heart

• Reading and meditating on Bible verses that really speak to you

• Engaging with encouraging, faith-filled content on a daily basis

By intentionally following these practices, we can begin to cultivate our first love fire once again.

This doesn’t mean that we won’t face more pain, temptation or distraction, but implementing these practices on a daily basis will help keep our fire burning for the Lord no matter the season or circumstance.

A song that captures this so beautifully is “First Love” by Kari Jobe. The lyrics go like this:

You’re still my first love

You’re still my only one

I feel my heart beating out of my chest

I want to stay forever like this

May the flame of my heart always be lit

I want to burn forever like this

Extending Our First Love to Relationship with Others

Another way of losing our first love is in our relationship with other people.

People are human. Humans are imperfect. Disappointments will come. Frustrations will happen.

But the question is: How will we respond?

I have to discipline myself to not think differently of someone after they have let me down or something did not work out the way I had hoped. I have to remember the first honor I had for them, be willing to surrender my unmet expectations to God and let things be what they are.

This might mean grieving a relationship that didn’t work out the way we hoped and surrendering it to God. Putting our relationships on the altar helps us be at peace with whatever the outcome may be, trusting that God has their best interest at heart.

Yes, it hurts when people let us down and friendships are not what they used to be. But we can choose to be grateful for the good times we shared and choose not to harbor bitterness over things not going our way.

Embracing Love and Surrender

We have to intentionally strive to keep that innocent, tender place of love for God and others in our hearts. This is something that takes time and practice.

This really all comes down to surrender. The pain of life is real. We get hurt by people and by circumstances we can’t change. We have an enemy who waits to accuse God to us when things don’t seem to be lining up with His character.

But the first and greatest commandment we have from God is simply to love Him. And the second command is to love people.

Love. That’s it.

If we practice these two things, we will be victorious.

Keeping the Flame Burning

Remember your first love. Find ways to keep that fire burning and seek to grow it even stronger.