Is This You?

I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far 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. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Revelation 2:2-7 NIV

This letter to the church at Ephesus was also written for the benefit 21st Century Believers as were the other six letters. Why? God loves us so much that He is unwilling to allow any of us to fall by the wayside. It was true then and it is true now. However, have we lost the love we had for Him when we first believed?

Do you remember when--your eyes were first opened and your heart was receptive to the love of God and His Word ministered to your soul? Do you remember how you wanted to share with everyone you met--the enlightening experience you had so all would know it, too? Do you remember the light of love that shone so brightly people knew something great had happened to you?

Does the light of God's love still shine brightly and people know who we are without telling them? Or has the darkness--the dark deeds of the enemy distracted us and caused us to allow fear to reign in our spirits and we've closed our hearts to hearing God because of what we see in others?

Every once in a while, when we feel ourselves getting weary of the nonsense that perpetuates the atmosphere, we need to take time to reflect upon how we first loved and then muster enough of that love--to energize us so we can keep going.

If you're like me--you've stopped watching the news because it is so disheartening and if we allow all the negativity to embed itself in our spirit, we'll start looking like the walking dead--still here, but wandering--trying to determine which way to go.

We know we cannot encourage anyone to practice a faith in anything or anyone other than God. This is what the Nicolaitans did--encouraged people to worship idols and false doctrine which included sexual immorality.  When people worship money and people above God, we have allowed the enemy to reign. We must remember God's love for us and know that nothing we do--unless we turn from Him--can cause Him to abandon us. He promised He would never leave us alone.

This is why it is important for us to stay in The Word and to keep our spiritual ears open and our hearts receptive to hearing from God. We must not allow others to influence us to do anything in opposition to God's Word and that includes all that we must consider on a daily basis. The Word must lead us--all the way through our journey on this side of heaven--not people.

The reason we should not follow people is because people are imperfect, fallible beings and if they are not following the precepts outlined in The Word, they are not worthy of our time and attention. Therefore, we must seek The Lord and His wisdom, only!

Now, is this you? Are you following people more than God? If so, step back and take a good look at where this may lead you and know--God's love for us never changes, but we often get tired and weary and lose sight of our first love for Him.