Do I Still Love My Savior, Jesus?
Today begins the start of a twenty-one day “Daniel Fast”. And during this time of fast and prayer, I want to help you to begin to purge your spirit of unwanted baggage that can cause a blockage between you and the Lord. The first seven days I want us to focus on the seven churches addressed in the Book of Revelation. Over the years, I have spent much time contemplating this all-important message to the follower of Christ today. And believe me when I say, “This will help you to locate where you are spiritually today and make necessary changes to where you want and need to be.” Let’s begin with the first message to the Church in Ephesus found in Revelation 2: 1-7, (NASB).
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:
The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:
2 ‘I know your deeds and your labor and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil people, and you have put those who call themselves apostles to the test, and they are not, and you found them to be false; 3 and you have perseverance and have endured on account of My name, and have not become weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Therefore, remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and I will remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. 6 But you have this, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will grant to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.’
This first message to the churches addresses the Church in Ephesus and the condition of the spiritual hearts. God recognizes their deeds, their labor, their perseverance, their intolerance for evil people, and their discernment to judge false apostles. It appears with these qualities that they will have God’s approval, but they don’t. In fact, even though they are godly in behavior, they fail and receive a warning to repent, or they will lose their position to shine their light. And why do they fail? They fail because they lose their love for Christ. And just as this is a warning for the Church of Ephesus, it is also a warning for God’s people today, in the midst of trying to live a godly lifestyle, abiding by the guidelines and boundaries set up for us by the Spirit of God, we can lose our focus, our reason for living a holy lifestyle–our Savior, Jesus. And by striving to be good and godly we forget about Him, take Him for granted, and our Christian behaviors override our love for Him. I don’t believe any of us set out to find us in this spiritual condition, but obviously it happens more frequently than we would like to admit, otherwise it would not have been addressed to the Church in the Book of Revelation.
What do we do if we find ourselves in this undesirable situation? The Spirit of God tells us what to do in verse five, “Remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the deeds you did at first.” God so lovingly warns us of the dangers of striving to be good and godly that we can unintentionally lose our focus, and take Him for granted, and forget how much He loves us, and desires or us to love Him in return.
Let’s pray.
“Father God, forgive me for striving so hard to be good and godly that I have forgotten my reason, and my source for surrendering to You in the first place. I do love You; I do desire to have a close and intimate relationship with You. I recognize that You are not only my Savior who delivered, forgave, and redeemed me from hell and myself, but You are my Lord; the One that I adore, in Jesus’ name, amen.”
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© 2022 Author Becky Dvorak–Healing and Miracles International, All rights reserved.
It is very difficult for some of us to pull ourselves away from culture, we know the wrong things done in culture like they cook food and invite us, they don’t say it is ancestral ( they know we would not participate ) but we know, the church is not helping us. We need to repent and find a way to refuse without fighting with our families.
A HUGE thank you for this confirming article, Becky. I have struggled in my relationship with Jesus in the past few years and I had to make a conscious decision to shut out the noise of people telling me to do this and do that, and just sit at the feet of Jesus.
I told Jesus that I wasn’t trying to be disobedient by not listening to others but they’re all confusing me and I NEED for my work, relationships, behaviours to emanate naturally from my relationship with Him and not from an external show. Feels liberating.
I stand with you for a renewal in your relationship with our Lord. :O)