Have You Left Your First Love? It's Not Too Late To Renew Your Vows....

Jeremiah 2:1-3 - The word of the LORD came to me:  "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: " 'I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown.  Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,' " declares the LORD.

 

Jeremiah’s second message to the people is to remember the devotion of their youth….when they felt the newness of God’s love and care…when they couldn’t get enough of God…and passionately followed him everywhere he told them to go.

 

The writer of Ecclesiastes 12 wrote almost the same words…. “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them" and John is given a similar message to include in Revelation 2:4… “ But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”

 

The analogy that comes to mind is that of divorce. It is a horrible thing….because those involved are saying they have given up on loving someone that they once said they loved more than anything else. It justifies a way to completely rid themselves of ever trying to repair….ever coming back to their first love. Maybe that is the picture in my mind because I am guilty of letting it become a part of my first marriage…I just gave up after 30 years….never to even try again to love what I said I would always cherish….always love…no matter what. And I am not alone…..America as a whole has a 50% rate of giving up on their first love. They finish number 12 in the world…the highest being someplace called Belarus at 68%.

 

It hits hard this morning….for it is so similar to the way we are with God. We justify letting the stress of the world…the circumstances we find ourselves in the moment…the ability to not forgive….to rule our choices to put God in a corner somewhere…and expect him to be happy with watching us destroy the plans he had for us when he made us.

 

Jeremiah’s message is so relevant today it is scary. God is calling all of us renew our vows of love to him.  He is calling for us to remember the passion and zeal we had to learn more about his word….to learn how to pray…to soak up all that we could about him so we could make him proud of us. The world of Christians gives this renewal process the name of rededication.

 

I am completely convicted this morning of my need to rededicate my life to God. And I know that I will have to wake every morning for the rest of my life and request him to wash me clean of any sin that helps me justify leaving God in that corner. For God deserves my very best chair…the up-front seating…the most comfy pillow…and a basin of warm soapy water for me to wash his feet daily as we talk about what he has planned for me to do. I need to put him back up front….and stop trying to control just how much of him I allow in my life.

 

Father…thank you for the reminder that I need to renew my vows to you. Refresh my heart with memories of the passion I had when you first came to live in my heart.  Light an all-consuming fire in my soul that no man or spirt of evil can ever quench. Forgive me for the sin that I have let justify the choices of divorce….and repair the damage that my choice made to my heart and my children’s hearts.  Show me how to make amends…and take responsibility for my wrong choices. Amen.