Return To Your First Love

This Spirit-led devotional invites you to return to your first love, Jesus. In a world filled with noise and distraction, this message calls your heart back to intimacy with Christ. Through reflection, prayer, and a gentle but clear call to repentance, you will realign your soul with the One who loved you first.

Let this be a moment of renewal, where your affection for Jesus deepens and your spiritual hunger is restored.

Transcript

Welcome.

Let's begin by settling into a posture of stillness.

Take a deep breath.

Let your body relax and your heart become alert.

Lord,

We ask you to come and speak to our hearts.

You are near to all who call on you in truth.

Open our ears and soften our hearts to hear and to respond to your word.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.

Let's open the scriptures together,

Not out of ritual,

But reverence.

As we open these pages,

Let's remember that we do not simply read for knowledge.

We read because we believe these words hold the power of life because it connects us to the very heart of our God.

So let's dive into it together.

We will read from Jeremiah 29,

11 to 13.

Again,

Jeremiah 29,

11 to 13.

It says,

For I know the plans I have for you,

Declares the Lord,

Plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

Plans to give you a hope and a future.

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Let me start by putting this into its proper context.

In Jeremiah 29,

The Israelites are in exile in Babylon.

They are far from their homeland and they feel the weight of their circumstances.

This is a time of despair and loss.

Jeremiah is speaking on behalf of God,

Writes to them a letter of hope,

Offering a future beyond their immediate pain.

But there is a catch.

God isn't just offering them a future in the sense that it will simply happen for them.

There is an active responsibility placed on them to seek him with their whole heart.

In this chapter,

Jeremiah is speaking directly to those who feel displaced,

Discouraged and distant from God.

This is precisely where many of us are today.

Maybe you are feeling spiritually dry,

Overwhelmed with life's distractions or distant from God.

But the truth is,

God has a plan for you,

A plan for your hope and a future.

But that future comes with a call.

He says that we must seek him with all our hearts.

There's no half-hearted seeking here.

There's no,

I will seek God when it's convenient.

No.

He is calling us to pursue him,

To hunger after his presence and to desire him above all else.

In these verses,

God is not far off.

He is present,

Waiting for us to turn our hearts toward him.

He promises that when we earnestly seek him,

We will find him.

And not just in a distant,

Abstract way,

But in a very intimate,

A very personal way.

This is the invitation to return to our first love,

To let go of the distractions and the other loves that we put in front of him.

When we do that,

He will meet us and the future he is offering us will be filled with hope.

The call today is simple.

God is speaking to each of us saying,

I know the plans I have for you and those plans are good,

But I need you to come after me with all your heart.

If you seek me,

You will find me.

This deeper exploration of Jeremiah 29,

11,

13,

Underscores the importance of active pursuit.

It's not about passively waiting for God to show up on our terms.

It's about seeking him with all that we have,

With everything in us.

This isn't a call to make God a priority when it fits into our schedule.

It is a call to make him the priority when,

You know,

We seek him above all else.

This is not a passive call.

It demands a response.

It demands your whole heart.

I want to talk today about returning to the first love.

And to start,

I will tell you a story.

I once was flying to Vancouver to speak at a woman's retreat on this very topic.

Next to me was a newlywed couple.

The husband beaming with joy,

Squirreled through the wedding portals,

Delighted by every image.

But the wife,

She was glued to her phone,

Rearranging her smoothie and her hoodie on a tray,

Trying to take the perfect Instagram shot.

He leaned over to cuddle,

Tried to kiss her.

She didn't look at him.

She smiled,

But she refused.

Eventually,

He gave up and he fell asleep.

And I thought,

How sad.

But this is how we treat Jesus.

He longs for communion with us.

But we,

Like that wife,

Are too busy arranging our lives for show.

Distracted,

Distant,

Disengaged.

In 2024,

We spent an average of 4.

8 hours per day on our phones.

That's over 1,

800 hours a year.

Do you know what we can do with just 80 hours?

We can read the Bible cover to cover.

So with 1,

800 hours,

You could read the Bible 20 times.

Instead,

It was endlessly squirreling your phone.

This is not legalism.

This is hunger.

This is longing.

This is love.

Spiritual apathy doesn't come from too much exposure to God.

It comes from neglect,

From disordered desires,

From calling Jesus,

Lord,

Lord,

But not doing what he says.

See,

In Luke 6,

46,

Jesus says,

Why do you call me Lord,

Lord,

And you do not do what I say?

And he continues,

I will show you what it is like who comes to me.

And hear my words and acts on them.

He is like a man building a house who dig deep and lay the foundation of rock.

And when a flood arose,

The stream broke against the house and could not shake it because it had been well built.

Friends,

Storms are not optional.

They will come.

But a solid foundation is.

I want you to think about this.

We all know about strong foundations,

Right?

When the world shakes,

When life gets tough,

The strength of the foundation is what determines whether we stand or fall.

We cannot build our lives on daily scrolls and weekly sermons.

The word must dwell in you richly.

You must eat the scroll.

This isn't about guilty.

This is about reality.

But here comes the good news.

We can return.

How do we return to that first love?

How do we hold on to Jesus in the midst of all distractions,

In the midst of the storm?

Well,

We can embrace the word,

Dive into God's word daily,

Not just as a duty,

But as a love letter from God.

Finding that life,

Hope and strength for each day.

We can also remove distractions.

We can identify the distractions in our lives that put us away from intimacy with God.

This could be anything from social media to busy schedules.

We can serve in gratitude.

Let your actions reflect your love for Christ.

Serve not to earn favor,

But as a joyful response to the grace that you have received.

Persevere in prayer.

Prayer is our lifeline.

Stay connected with God through prayer.

Talk to him as you would talk to a friend.

Let your prayers be full of gratitude and confession and surrender.

And worship.

Worship is more than a song or a Sunday service.

It's a lifestyle.

Let every part of your life be an offering of worship to the one who saved you.

See,

The reformed perspective,

The one I hold to,

Reminds us that our salvation is not about what we do,

But what Christ has already done.

But that doesn't mean that we sit idly by.

In fact,

Grace does not leave us inactive.

Grace,

The unmerited favor of God,

Is what moves us to act.

It's what motivates us to respond to his love.

The story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19 illustrates this perfectly.

Zacchaeus,

In response to Jesus' presence,

He was moved to radically change his life.

He gave away half of his possessions and he restored what he had taken.

His actions were not to earn salvation,

But it was a grateful response to the love and grace that Jesus showed him.

This is the fruit of true encounter,

Obedience,

Repentance,

Joyful sacrifice.

We must resist modern Christianity's tendency to promise intimacy without holiness,

Embrace without repentance,

Comfort without cost.

Jesus says in Revelation 2,

I know your works,

But I have this against you,

That you have abandoned the love you had at first.

Remember,

Therefore,

From where you have fallen,

Repent and do the works you did at first.

This is his invitation.

Return to your first love.

Remember,

Repent,

Return.

So let me ask you,

Where have you neglected his voice?

What distractions have you replaced your devotion with?

What is the Holy Spirit calling you to surrender?

Maybe it's time to log off?

To fast from media?

To wake up earlier?

To return to the quiet place?

Not to earn his love,

But because you miss him.

So let us pray.

Jesus,

We confess our distracted hearts.

We have chased lesser things.

We've grown cold.

We have called you Lord,

But lived like you were optional.

Forgive us.

We want you back at the center.

We choose to return.

Teach us to abide again.

To seek you with our whole hearts.

You are worthy.

Amen.

Friends,

He hasn't moved.

He's still here.

Come back.

Come back to your first love.