Food for the Journey - an extract from Revelation

New for this month is the 365-day devotional Food for the Journey. This volume contains the best teaching from the most-well known speakers from over the years at the Keswick Convention. These readings will teach, inspire and encourage from across the whole canon of scripture.

Throughout July and August we will be sharing inspiring quotes, Scripture passages and extracts to celebrate this new release.

Today's extract is from Relevation 1 - 3

Day 339
Read Revelation 2:1–7
Key verse: Revelation 2:4

4 Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken the love you had at first.

It must be one of the most devastating statements in the whole of Scripture: ‘You have left your first love’ (NJKV).

One person translates it, ‘You do not love me as much as you used to. You have given up loving me.’ When the church was planted in ad 52, it was on fire for God. When Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians in ad 62, about thirty years before the book of Revelation was penned, it was a church that had a reputation for love (Ephesians 1:15; 6:24). But now that love has grown cold. You can imagine the Christians there saying, ‘We are tired out. Have you seen all our church ministries? Haven’t you seen our programme? We are fighting for truth. We have suffered for your name.’

‘Yes,’ says the Lord, ‘but you do not love me like you used to. You can have all those things, but if your love has grown cold, then it is fatal.’

Sometimes we are so busy about the Lord’s service that we do not have time for the Lord we serve. The issue is worship. Of course, worship is everything we do: it is 24/7, presenting our bodies as living sacrifices to God. We worship God in the office, in the factory, when we are looking after the kids, struggling with pain and dealing with elderly relatives. The New Testament talks about worship in this broad sense, but it also speaks about those moments we spend gazing on God. We are to come, as individuals or as the body of Christ, and spend time gazing on the beauty of the Lord, declaring his worth, delighting in his character, loving him, adoring him, praising his name, surrendering our will to him.

In verse 4 we are assuming that the love spoken of is a love for Christ, but it could equally be a love for God’s people. When we fall out of love with the Lord, we find God’s people very hard to love. The only thing that sustains a ministry of loving difficult people is the love of Christ. We cannot love the church unless we love Christ.

Are you bitter as you look around at those in the church who don’t work as hard as you do? Do you find yourself criticizing others or feeling overprotective of your ministry? Do you feel exhausted and joyless in serving? Perhaps, like the ephesians, you have become so busy in the lord’s service that you have forgotten the lord you serve. God is jealous for your love. It doesn’t matter how much you serve, how well you know your Bible, or how many spiritual victories you have experienced in the past, if you don’t love the lord wholeheartedly. Do you love God more now than you did six months, a year or even ten years ago? are you grieving the lord? If so, acknowledge his rebuke, repent and ask for forgiveness:

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.
(Hebrews 4:7)

Order your copy of Food for the Journey here >>