Leaving Your First Love - Hosea 5-8 and Revelation 2

It is amazing how many times I hear about a couple who have been married for 20 years who are getting divorced. The story seems to always be the same. One or both of them say they do not love the other person any more. They might even go so far as to say they don't even know each other any more. How can that happen? They let things come in the way of their love like their kids and their work. They leave the first type of love they had for each other, and they allow themselves to settle for an inferior type of love. This gradually leads to dissatisfaction and even divorce. It is a tragedy when it happens in a marriage, but it is even more of a tragedy when it happens in our relationship with God. That is exactly what happened to Israel. Hosea pointed out all of the effects of going after other things instead of God. God even told them that He did not know them any more. There was no relationship. John says the same thing of the church at Ephesus. They were doing good things. but their first love was gone. They were doing their duty, but not out of love. This was so serious that God told them if they did not repent, they would cease to be a church. I pray that we hear that strong admonition. God does not want a relationship with a person or a church in which the love dies. He wants our love to grow. If not, He is not satisfied. He calls us to remember how it was at first, repent of our sin of leaving that love, and begin to do the things we did at first. That is the only way to restore the first type of love for a couple or for a relationship with God. This is vital. As I said yesterday, love is the key to all we do. It is the only proper motivation for relationships. We must keep the love strong and growing.

Tomorrow, I intend to read Hosea 9-11 and Revelation 3.