Yesterday we discovered the cancer eating the Ephesian church from the inside out:  they had left their first love.  The diagnosis was serious.  The prescription is direct and clear.

Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

Revelation 2:5

Remember.  I don’t know about you, but sometimes the greatest rebuke to my spiritual walk comes from talking to new believers in Jesus.  They are so passionate for their newfound Savior and His Word!  Their eagerness to learn, their willingness to obey, their enthusiasm for sharing Truth with others are refreshing and challenging to me.  I’ve often had new Christians comment to me that their new friends in the church don’t seem to want to talk with them about everything they are learning and their zeal to obey – and I think they’re right.  We don’t like to hear it.  It makes us uncomfortable.  We need to remember – to remember where we would be without Jesus Christ, to remember the amazing gift of forgiveness of sins He has offered to us, to remember that we do not earn grace with all of our “good works!”

Repent.  Why are they repenting?  Because failing to be motivated first and foremost by love was sin. SIN.

Consider this:  if the greatest commandment is to ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,’ then loving God with anything less than ALL our hearts and ALL our souls and ALL our minds is SIN.  And sin calls for repentance – to agree with God that our sin is deeply offensive, to desire His righteousness, to turn around and head in the other direction!

Do the things you did at first.  Dig into the Bible like you’ve never read it before.  Pray with the awe and excitement that the Creator and Ruler of the Universe has invited you into His throneroom!  Worship God out of the deep gratitude of one who knows that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for US.

I’ve been thinking off and on for quite a while now about the Sermon on the Mount – it strikes me that there is a reason why “blessed are the poor in spirit” is the first beatitude.    Until we realize how truly poor and undeserving we are of the rich grace He has lavished on us, we will not love Him like the woman in Luke 7.

Take a good long look at yourself today, friend.  See the ugliness of your sin.  Recognize the truth of what you deserve versus what God has given you.  Stop piling up your “good works” before God as ‘payment’ and recognize that they do not make you any more deserving of salvation – we are utterly poor in spirit, we are utterly dependent on grace.  Until we realize that we are the forgiven much, we will not love Him lavishly.  We need to remember, repent, and turn to Him in deep gratitude.

Art used (with permission) by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992. To order prints visit her “Revelation Illustrated” site,  http://revelationillustrated.com.