Forsaken Love

At first, I was having a little bit of trouble deciding what to write about today, but then it came to me. A couple of days ago, I began reading "Passion and Purity" by Elisabeth Elliot. I have had many of my close friends recommend this book saying it will change my life. Seven chapters into it, my life has already been changed. So here are a few things I've gotten from this book so far and some other things that God has been doing lately.
-taye


Forsaken Love

"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."
-Revelation 2:2-4 (NIV)

The latter sentence of this passage in the book of Revelation struck me. Upon first reading it nearly a week ago, I literally sat with the breath knocked out of me upon reading the last words. Why? Because God was speaking to me. It was not any other human being whom He was speaking of, it was I. I was the one who had been so selfish and callous as to have forsaken my first love, Jesus Christ.

The past few nights, as I have delved into the heart and mind of Elisabeth Elliot through her book "Passion and Purity" I have been coming to the sad realization of what the world views as true love. I have friends who have lost count of the number of boyfriends they have obtained in their lifetime so far, some of those friends being younger than I am. In the section when Elisabeth Elliot describes her first date and the days that followed wit the man that would eventually become her husband, I could see where I and the world fall short of what God has planned for true love. True love is completely impossible without knowledge and understanding of the indescribable love that Christ has for us, His children. He created love, so wouldn't one think that He has it figured out how one can truly love another? One would think so, but the world does not agree.

I was pondering this morning how people could believe in evolution and ended up with a pretty good analogy that made me chuckle. Say you went to your biological parents one day and told them: "Mom, Dad, I don't believe that I was born through you, I believe that my fish Nemo conceived and birthed me." Would your parents not nearly die from laughter? The theory of evolution, in a way, can be related. It's like looking at God and telling Him, "I don't believe you created me or anything else in the earth." God loves us abundantly, let us not continue to forsake our first love, especially when He is willing to give us a second chance at loving Him.