Do You Remember Your 1st love?
The Lord brought this to my mind the other day and really had me think on a lot of things…. Now naturally we all think about that question pertaining to our first love, our first kiss, our first heartache, etc.
You would hear the saying of a mother telling her son, that she was the first woman he ever loved,,,, or a father to a newborn girl growing up as seeing her daddy as the first man she ever loved in the world.
So much of our experiences whether good or bad can have such impacts on our lives. It could have been a gentle reminder of how we felt loved or the painful sting of a heartbreak that left us feeling rejected and insecure.
I had the chance to share from a dear person about their beautiful love story…
I remember mine I was 15 , he 18 , late summer early fall of 1966. It took 50 years but God led us back together, after each of us married someone else, both spouses have passed away, God led us back to each other, who would of thought.
I think of my precious grandparents and the love that they had for each other even until each of their last breaths…A love story of their own and how their faces would light up even after all the years when I would ask them how they met and fell in love…..
But what the Lord was really whispering to me was about remembering who our 1st Love should be….Him..No one could love us so unconditionally and so perfectly as He does.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love my hubby and together we are an awesome team in the Lord and he is my prayer warrior and sharing a love and life with someone who loves the Lord passionately is beautiful.
But we each know we hold the Lord #1 in our lives and no one can or should ever take that place.
Our priorities
It is amazing how we put so much emphasis on so many things in our lives and people who we allow to have so much control over our lives that we forget what True Love really is all about…
I remember as a little girl into my pre-teens how I would spend hours lost in His Word…. My brother would be reading his comic books and me next to him absorbed in His Word. I was sooo hungry and would get lost in the Bible and the Lord’s presence and Love would overwhelm me and engulf me with such a sweet peace like I had never known.
I am here to share my heart and confess that I allow LIFE and things distract me and those times of spending endless hours with Him have become a struggle. I guess you can say it was like a honeymoon phase that I just couldn’t get enough of the Lord and His presence.
It reminded me of the scripture in Revelation 2:4-……of abandoning your first love.
How He longs to spend time with us and woos us to come get alone with Him and talk with us and share with us.
The Lord’s perfect love
Jeremiah 31:3 The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee
John 15:9&10 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deut. 6:5
Prov. 8:17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.
Isaiah 63:9 In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us
When you really think how much the Lord loved us and died for us. He was God and could easily have gotten down off the cross and wouldn’t have had to suffer all that pain and agony . He knew though He had to do that for us as a sacrifice, laying down His own wants and His life so we can be redeemed and spend eternity with Him. Love like that!!
1 John 3:16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
Zephaniah 3:17 For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”
John 15:9&10 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love
Romans 5:5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has
been given to us.
Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
Ephesians 2:4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy
Ephesians 5:2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Titus 3:4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
Deut. 23:5 However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you.
John 13:1 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
Psalm 17:8 Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings
The Different kinds of love talked about in the Bible
Agapao(verb) is a special word representing the divine love of God toward His Son, human beings in general and believers.
This kind of love is perhaps best expressed in Jesus Christ’s statement in John 15:13, “Greater love [ agape ] has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” Jesus Himself perfectly exemplified this kind of love throughout His lifetime, continually giving of Himself and His time and energies to serve others and ultimately offering up His life as a sacrifice for all of humanity. This is the kind of love God wants each of us to exemplify in our lives and particularly in our marriages
Phileo (verb) means “ ‘to have ardent affection and feeling’—a type of impulsive love” ( Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary , 1995, “Love”). This is the natural, human type of love and affection that we have for a friend and is often defined as “brotherly love.”
Eros (noun) refers to sexual, erotic love or desire.
True love, as explained in the Bible, isn’t focused on oneself and one’s feelings or emotions, but is instead outwardly focused on others —wanting to best serve and care for them. True love is beautifully described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails”
Whether it be your story or your own experiences with the Lord, I would love to hear about your love story…….
As always if you have never known this kind of love,,,,you may have heard about Jesus, but haven’t known Him in a real and personal way. Or you may have a hole in your heart left from a past heartache… I encourage you to run into the safe, loving arms of the One who knows you better than you even know yourself..I will leave you with this simple prayer.
In His Love,
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