What is my First Love?

Just prior to watching Geoff’s latest video on Sunday morning, Barbara and I decided to listen to some worship music before listening to the message. One of the songs we listened to was I Give You My Heart by Hillsong. The words are as follows:

This is my desire
To honour You
Lord, with all my heart
I worship You
All I have within me
I give You praise
All that I adore
Is in You

Lord, I give You my heart
I give You my soul
I live for you alone
And every breath that I take
Every moment I’m awake
Lord, have Your ways in me

The words of the song really spoke to me. What is it that I really desire? What above all else is it that I crave?

The Sons of Korah in Psalm 42:1-2 say it so well:

As a deer pants for flowing streams,
 so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?

And King David in Psalm 63:1

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
 my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

As Geoff had been speaking about the 4th Commandment, my mind wandered to Jesus speaking to the lawyer, who was a Pharisee. The lawyer asks him in Matthew 22:36-37

 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.

I wonder what it means to Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind?

Let me take you back nearly 34 years. A young Scotsman has just married his stunningly beautiful bride. He is absolutely besotted with her. He thinks of nothing else. The day after the wedding, they head off on their honeymoon. Just the two of them together. Two weeks spent just with each other. His mind can think of nothing else, except his beautiful wife. Every minute of every day, she is all that fills his thoughts.
The week after coming home from their honeymoon, he has to leave her, unexpectedly, to work for almost four months without seeing her, and very occasionally, being able to speak on the phone together. His heart is aching to see her, to hold her, to be with her. Work is difficult to concentrate on, because his mind is filled with her. Always looking forward to the time when he will see her again, and be with her. It was an aching love! All that he wanted was to be with her.

What a day that was, when they were re-united. The one that had consumed his thoughts night and day was once more together with him. Re-united!

There are a few young couples in our congregation that are going through the exact same thing, unable to meet with each other. When you are unable to be with your love, it is distressing, painful, upsetting.

That is what I think the first commandment is like. God is to fill our hearts and minds and soul. He should be the first in our thoughts.

Take your mind back to when you first became a Christian. The desire to know God, to please Him, to love Him was almost palpable. God has created men and women for intimacy with himself.

But sometimes in our life, other things take the place of God. When God is not our first love, our love for him spills over into other things. We become desperate, looking to all kinds of other things to worry over, things to get, things to arrange. We are prone to wander from Him, and we find we need all sorts of other things. God’s place in our heart is replaced. Our longing for God the infinite has been replaced with finite things.

King David says again in Psalm 37:4

Delight yourself in the Lord,
 and he will give you the desires of your heart.

When God is first in our lives, everything else falls into perspective.

I woke in the middle of the night and the words of that song we sing, When The Music Fades came into my mind. “It’s all about you, Jesus!” And that’s it!
Nothing else matters. It’s all about Him.

2 Replies to “What is my First Love?”

  1. So true John. It’s lovely to hear your story nd be able to reminisce non our first love. We must however put Him above all others, abiding in Him, loving Him with all our hearts, souls and minds. Especially now when we are in so much anguish and sometimes feeling despair at what is happening night now. Let us keep our eyes on Jesus and be in our knees. God bless you and your beautiful bride.

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