“To the angel 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 lamp stands: I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which 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 lamp stand from its place. Revelations 2:1-5 NIV

In the book of Revelation, the Lord speaks through John to seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. He commends them, encourages them and rebukes them. The Lord commended the Ephesians church for working hard, being committed to the truth and persevering through hardships without giving up. But He had to rebuke them because they had forgotten to enjoy their relationship with Jesus and to keep Him first in their priorities. You cannot work for or earn anything that

God has given you or anything He has done for you. It is all a free gift given by grace and received in humility. Humility is the ability to receive that which you do not deserve. If the devil can’t stop you from serving God then he tries to get you so busy laboring and working hard FOR the Lord that you forget to have a relationship WITH the Lord. Jesus was your first love and He must remain your first love. The Greek word for “first” means foremost – in time, place, order or importance. It is translated variously as “before, beginning, best, chief, first of all, and former.” Jesus is the most important person in your life – your first love and your only love. When you marry your earthly true love, you commit to love them only and forever. You love them so completely that you are not ever tempted to even look around at another.

We are to commit to the Lord for eternity like we would to a marriage that will last a lifetime. God hates divorce and separation because when He commits to us, it is forever for Him. When we are flaky and uncommitted in our earthly relationships, then we will most likely be inconsistent and unfaithful in our heavenly relationships. The Lord loves us with all His heart. He longs to have a close relationship with us. He longs to fellowship and commune with us. The closer we get to Him, the closer we get to His protection and His blessing. He will never leave us alone – we are the ones who stupidly make the mistake of moving away from Him and the blessing of His presence.

If Jesus is your first love then you should treat Him like your first love. You should respect Him, reverence Him, notice Him, regard Him, honor Him, prefer Him, venerate Him, esteem him, defer to Him, praise Him, and love Him exceedingly! What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all– how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died– more than that, who was raised to life– is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39 NIV 

God is FOR us – He is on our side! He did not spare His OWN SON to redeem us from the pit. WHO is there that can accuse us when GOD has justified and acquitted us? Jesus, Himself, is actually PLEADING as He intercedes on our behalf at the right hand of God. NOTHING in heaven, on the earth or under the earth will stop the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit from loving us! When you know how much God has given and how much He has done to show His love for you – how can you be fickle and wishy-washy about loving Him? Give Him your ALL – He is worthy of it! He is worthy of the best that you have. He is worthy of ALL your love, ALL your devotion and ALL your praise. Stop wasting your time on things that do not matter in eternity and show Him how much you love Him today. Give Him your heart and your life and He will never let you go!

Foundation scripture: Ephesians 2:1-11(KJV)
1: And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

2: Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

3: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wath, even as others.

4: But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

5: Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

6: And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

7: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

8: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Once we were dead in our sins, but God, who is rich in mercy and who loves us with His great love has quickened us together with Jesus Christ.

Rodney Howard Browne shows us that quicken – means to make alive. We were dead to God and alive to sin – now, with Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are dead to sin and alive unto God! Verse 4, in the Amplified Bible, says that His love for us is great, wonderful and intense. We are saved by grace so that in the ages to come He might clearly demonstrate the immeasurable, limitless, surpassing riches of His free grace (unmerited favor) in His kindness and goodness of heart toward us (Amplified – verse 7).

The word of God teaches us that we are not just saved by grace, so that we can barely make it into heaven. Being saved by grace is only the doorway into all the wonderful things that God has for us. Through the ages to come, throughout all eternity, forever and ever, our Heavenly Father will be expressing to us the riches – the exceeding, immeasurable, limitless, surpassing riches – of His wonderful, unmerited, undeserved, free grace and favor as He reveals and extends to us, His goodness and His kindness.

The bible further explains that we cannot even begin to comprehend, with our limited mental abilities as people, the love that our Father has for us. We cannot comprehend the riches of His grace and favor and goodness and kindness. Many people do not believe that God loves them and wants to bless them, but even those who do believe it, have a hard time grasping the unlimitedness of God’s love and grace toward them. We feel that we are not worthy, and so we accept only little tidbits at a time of His love and grace and favor, but it has absolutely nothing to do with being worthy, and everything to do with how He feels about us.

He wants to show us His favor and He wants to bless us – not because of any worthiness on our part, but simply because that is the nature of the love of God. He loves the undeserving – He showers blessings on the undeserving. God blesses us because of His nature and in spite of ours. It makes no difference how we feel about it – it is so anyway. If you can even begin to understand free grace and unmerited favor, you will realize what a slap it is in God’s face for men to think that they should, or even could, earn His favor.

It is impossible to pay this debt we owe to God. The debt was paid in the blood of Jesus – far too high a price for us to earn, even over a lifetime. The best we can do is realize the price has been paid and humbly and sincerely and wholeheartedly receive our free gift, knowing that we will never be able to repay it. Realizing the extent of God’s love and blessing – even though completely undeserved – causes us to want to serve Him, to love Him and obey Him. He paid so high a price – the very least we can do is give Him everything we are and everything we have as He continues to pour out on us and show us His love and His kindness throughout all eternity and the ages to come.

Romans 2:4(KJV)
4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?