Don’t Leave Me
Read This Week: Revelation 2
You have persevered, 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.
– Revelation 2:3-5 NIV
Judging types, sizes, and styles of churches have become a bit of a pastime in America. Many like to sit around and talk about the genre of music that churches play and the type of welcome one receives. People comment on the activities for the kids, whether or not the youth group is excellent, whether the pastor teaches expositional or topical, and if one can join a small group that is convenient for their schedule. There are as many opinions as there are people. Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church and is the only one with the authority, sovereignty, and supremacy to judge churches and their spiritual intent and rightly assess their hearts. He is the righteous judge of the Church.
Revelation 2 talks about churches. John is relaying the words of Christ to 4 churches in this chapter: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, and Thyatira. All of them have specific characteristics in particular settings with varied challenges. All of them had things they did well and brought glory to God that Jesus commends, but three of the four also had something that the Lord held against them. Only Smyrna had no charges or accusations upon them. They were persecuted and poor, but they had found favor in God’s sight. The others had qualities that were commendable and fitting for Christ-centered churches. But they also had things that Jesus wanted to address, correct, and rebuke.
One of the more interesting ones is Ephesus. The Lord begins his address to them by commending their service, good works, and sacrifice. After all, this was a church that had Paul, Timothy, and John himself as leaders at one time in their history. They had gleaned from the teaching and example of their former leaders and were equipped to be a dynamic church in a big city. Ephesus was also a church that knew how to be a light. They would go to great lengths to separate themselves from false doctrine and teachers and from deceitful behavior (v.6). They didn’t pull back from their witness and stayed on mission despite great opposition. From the outside, Ephesus was a church to be emulated and imitated.
But God sees the heart and saw a heart problem in Ephesus. Not only a heart problem but a love problem. He says in his accusation that they had forsaken the love you had at first. The Church was going through the motions even though their motions were admirable, good, and worthy. But their activities had grown stale and routine, and it wasn’t underwritten by the love and passion they once had for Jesus. So Christ rebukes them for their spiritual apathy and says if they don’t return to a love-filled walk with God, He will remove their influence. God was more concerned about who they were than what they were doing. He wanted their hearts to be right again before they did anything more with their hands.
The same message is relevant to us today. God is telling us through the challenge to the Church at Ephesus, don’t leave me. Don’t leave our first love. Don’t forsake the passion, excitement, joy, and deep commitments of our hearts at the beginning of our life with God. Don’t allow intimacy with Christ to become just a routine and not a beautiful love relationship that is renewed daily. Don’t allow a cooled-down love to hurt our witness and cause us to lose our influence on the gospel mission. Jesus is exhorting us not to leave Him. He calls to us to return to the things we did at first. Stay with the One who gave us life and brought us to this point and who will never leave. Stay by His side and stay in love. He is worthy.
God focused my attention on Revelation 2 verse 3 and 4 in the AMPC:
3 I know you are enduring patiently and are bearing up for My name’s sake, and you have not fainted or become exhausted or grown weary.
4 But I have this [one charge to make] against you: that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first [you have deserted Me, your first love].
God said to me “Do not let time erode your love for Me. Routine is when time passes by quickly without moments of clarity. Hold Me dear and I will always do the same for you. It is up to you to let your heart beat for Me and don’t just do the walk and talk the talk, but live the life with Me.”
What this means to me is that it is up to us to keep those “butterflies” with God. We can walk the walk but we have to remember WHY we are doing that. The answer is always, for God. It is good to not over complicate things and just get back to basics when things get heavy. Let that love for God blossom and grow stronger with each day. I love you God.
Revelation Chapter 2 verse 19
I know your record and what you are doing, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your recent works are more numerous and greater than your first ones.
Revelation Chapter 2 verse 25
Only hold fast to what you have until I come.
God is saying to me:
You are my chosen one! I love you and will only the best for you. You are loving and faithful and I know your efforts. You are patient, listening and being a rapid responder but many aren’t as courageous as you. Do you remember when you first fell in love with me? My child, never steer away from your first love and always keep me first in everything you do. Share my love with others so they too can love me the way I love you and you love me.
What this means to me:
God wants me to totally put him first in everything I do. He loved me first and never wants me to forget the joy, peace, and freedom that I felt and experienced when I gave my heart and soul to Him. He loves it when we are faithful, seek him first in our daily endeavors and fellowship with other Christians, loving and encouraging one another. Christ needs us to hold onto His promises and allow Him to always be our first love to further His kingdom.
I love this song because I am thankful that Father God puts me first I wanna always put Him
When I wake up I love to Him Him I love Him
I love it when I get to hear His voice ❤️
I love to seek Him in everything
I never get enough of studying, learning and growing in His ways I wanna be just like Jesus \0/
I hear God saying
It’s all about a live relationship between you and Me❤️
I love it when you listen and respond with My joy!
I love to show off for because I know your heart your always putting others first that’s My heart too ❤️
Keep up the good work because that’s what life is all about I love you my daughter ❤️
Awe ty Father for Your precious Love
First Lauren Daiglel
Before I bring my need
I will bring my heart
Before I lift my cares
I will lift my arms
I wanna know You
I wanna find You
In every season
In every moment
Before I bring my need
I will bring my heart
And seek You
First
I wanna seek You, I wanna seek You
First
I wanna keep You, I wanna keep You
First
More than anything I want, I want You
First
Before I speak a word
Let me hear Your voice
And in the midst of pain
Let me feel Your joy, ooh
I wanna know You
I wanna find You
In every season
In every moment
Before I speak a word
I will bring my heart
And seek You
First
I wanna seek You, I wanna seek You
First
I wanna keep You, I wanna keep You
First
More than anything I want, I want You
First
You are my treasure and my reward
Let nothing ever come before
You are my treasure and my reward
Let nothing ever come before
I seek You
First
(I wanna seek You)
First
I wanna seek You, I wanna seek You
First
I wanna keep You, I wanna keep You
First
More than anything I want, I want You
First
First
This week I have a song in revelation 2
Seeking you
We are seeking you seeking you we are seeking you, our Lord you give us hope joy, peace even in the midst of chaos just knowing you’re guiding helping us through gives us comfort you are the truth the way we praise you Lord praise you we want a relationship with you growing in our faith knowing you Forgive our sins helping us to forgive others we are seeking you seeking you we are seeking you our Lord amen Amen
Always know that our Lord has been always will be there for us. He wants us to go to him listen and Obey. And remember we have our pastors to help us too. Thank you God for our Christian family.
In Revelation 2, this was what God was showing me. This chapter stresses that Jesus is central to the church, and should be recognized as such. Jesus knows your work in My kingdom. Even though the church and My believers may look wonderful on the outside, I see what is going on in the inside. As Christians, you are told to love Me and love one another. You can’t say that you love Me and not my family. Things aren’t as they use to be. When you first became a Christian, everything was brand new in the Christian life, and you had such an excitement for it. If the excitement matured into a depth of love, that will make it even better than the first love. “Remember from where you have fallen” means to remember where you use to be in your first love for Me and for one another. The first step in getting back to where you should be with Me, is restoration. You need to repent before it’s too late. You need to go back to the basics, to the first things you did when you fell in love with Jesus. Remember how you use to spend time in My word, how you use to pray, the joy you got when when you spent time with other Christians, and how excited you were to tell other’s about Jesus? Jesus spoke of your overcoming your coldness of heart and your lack of love caused by leaving your first love. The promise to you who overcomes is restoration and eternal life in Heaven where I live. It’s important to make sure that the faith you hold on to, is the faith that belongs to Jesus. Hold fast and do not stop doing what is good. Hang in there and stand strong for Jesus, until He comes. You as a Christian can overcome and keep Jesus’s works, until the end.
What this said to me was I need to get back to where I was in the beginning of my christian walk. I need to be in His word, to pray, and worship more consistently. This will fuel the fire in me again. I need to repent and stand firm. I need to stand strong for Jesus until He returns.