Remember When!

Revelation 2:1-4 1“To the angel[a] of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 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. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.

In his book God Is Closer than You Think, pastor and author John Ortberg writes of what psychologists call “habituation.” As the word itself suggests, we humans are creatures of habit who are easily swayed into settling into the habit of our status quo. Behind the specific psychological phenomenon of “habituation” is the idea that when a new object or stimulus is introduced into our environment, we are intensely aware of it, but, over time, our awareness fades. And so too that stimulus that so easily got our attention to begin with fades into the background of our habits.

For example, it might be a new wristwatch that we self-consciously feel on our wrist, until after a few days wearing it when we don’t even notice it’s there. We learn to get used to it. Maybe it’s something we see or something we hear, something we smell, that we get accustomed enough to that we don’t notice any more

One of the greatest challenges in life is fighting what might be called spiritual habituation. We simply drift into acceptance of life in spiritual maintenance mode. We rationalize it because we think, “I’m not involved in major scandalous sin. I haven’t done anything to jeopardize getting into heaven. I’m doing okay.” And we forget that Jesus never said, “I have come that you might do okay.” Okay is not okay. We have a kind of spiritual attention deficit disorder that God will have to break through.

When life is on spiritual habituation mode, rivers of living water do not flow through it with energy and joy. Instead it looks like this: 1. You don’t have a strong hunger for the Word; Bible reading is a “chore”—something to mark off your “to do” list. 2. Spending time in prayer is a burden/duty rather than a delight. 3. Your worship is formal, dry, lifeless, merely going through the motions. 4. You are more concerned about physical health, well-being, and comfort than about the well-being and condition of your soul.

Spiritual habituation is in some ways more dangerous than spiritual depravity because it can be so subtle, so gradual. Jesus tells us the problem in Revelation 2:4 “you have left your first Love”. Notice the church in Ephesus was doing everything on the surface right, Jesus commended them for it. “I’m not involved in major scandalous sin. I haven’t done anything to jeopardize getting into heaven. They were doing OK. But, they had lost the WOW and the AWE of their relationship with God.

Maybe someone reading this is there, has been there, or knows someone who is there. Here is some good news….Jesus tells us how to get it back. Jesus tells us two things we need to do to get it back. Revelations 2:5,

1. Consider how far you have fallen. Remember what it was like when the Lord Jesus Christ first saved you? Recalling your salvation experience and your first love for the Lord can help you recognize changes that have developed in your relationship with God since then. Remember the Joy of knowing, God was one our side. Knowing that no matter what happened nothing could separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:38). Say Like David in Psalms 51:12,”Restore unto me the Joy Of thy salvation”

2. Repent and do the things you did at first. In Revelation 2:5, the word first means “foremost (in time, place, order or importance),” and the word works is defined as “toil (as an effort or occupation).” In other words, if you find that you have left your first love for the Lord, get your priorities back in order and do the most important things. God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are just as passionate and in love with us as they were the first second we became his child. His love for us never fades never grows weary.

Thank you Jesus, Help me to love you with a sense of reverential awe every second of everyday. Say it with me” Thank you Jesus, Help me to love you with a sense of reverential awe every second of everyday”. Blessings!

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