This pandemic season has been a rollercoaster ride for the body of Christ. The consistent opening and closing of the churches has been challenging for the saints to keep their fire burning for God. Some of us, in this time of isolation, struggled to hold on to our faith. The world has been in a state of panic and anxiety. For some of us, it has been a season of frustration. Not knowing how to navigate through these unprecedented times had caused us to be distracted and even stagnate.
No longer should we allow the world’s response to influence our response to Christ! As saints, we should respond to all that is happening from our position in Him. Today there is a call to each one of us to once again place our gaze, hearts and affection on the one we love. Just as a bride would gaze at her groom so should we as the church set our eyes on Christ and return to our first love.

How do I Begin??
Revelation 2:4-5 gives us the keys we need to return to our First Love, which is to Remember where we have fallen, To repent and lastly to do the works we first did. In this chapter, we see that a letter was written to the church of Ephesus from Jesus encouraging them to return to their first love. They had done many great things but one thing the Lord had against them is that they abandoned the love that they had for Christ. It is very possible today that we could have been doing many great things in the church and attending various ‘live streams’ of services from Sunday to Sunday but in actuality, it only has just become a routine. These things were never meant to be a substitute for passionately loving Jesus. Anything we do for Christ must be out of love for Him not out of religious obligation.

Remember where we have Fallen
This is where we take the time to reflect and bring to remembrance a time when we had such a love and passion for Christ, where we had a love for His presence and even the sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit. For some of us that time could have been a couple of months ago and for some of us it may have been more than a year ago.
In this time of reflection, we need to be honest with ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to show us what has changed. Where did we become distracted or even dare I say, where we became lazy! I know the pandemic played a major role in shifting and shaking the world but as saints, this pandemic was never meant to shift and shake our hearts away from Christ. In actuality, this pandemic season was a way for us to draw ourselves nearer to His heart. The extra free time we have received was really meant to provide a way for us to spend more time in His word and in His presence.

Repent
Now that we have remembered where we have fallen, we must repent. Repenting is more than just saying I am sorry and feeling guilty. When we repent this is allowing your life to represent the change in heart, mind and actions. Turning away from what caused us to abandon our first love and return our hearts to Christ. This does not necessarily mean that you were in sin but sometimes in our walk with the Lord, we could at times become a little complacent. However, in this season and time, there is no room for complacency in the body of Christ. Let us pick up ourselves and begin to show the fruits of repentance and make the necessary changes and realign our hearts back to the Lord.

Do the Works we First Did.
After Repentance, we begin to pick up where we have left off. This means for some of us to revamp our prayer and fasting life and return to that place of discipline. It means that it may require us to resume frequently feeding and meditating on God’s word. It requires us to be intentional about our walk with the Lord and doing it from a place of loving Him. Our relationship with God is not passive, it is proactive. Don’t be afraid to add structure to your devotional life. For some of us it means intentionally carving our time daily and putting that time aside for the Lord.

Conclusion.
People of God, today is the day to return to that place in Christ. Allow the Lord to restart the fire in your heart for him. Begin to give your attention to the Lord. Do not guilt trip or beat down on yourselves because you felt like you lost focus. Jesus never left you and He’s waiting for you with His hand stretched out to draw you back to Him, to guide and redirect your heart. Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus and His love for you and continue your journey with Him daily.