Rekindling Our First Joy in Christ

Jeremiah 2:2

Go and shout this message to Jerusalem. This is what the LORD says: "I remember how eager you were to please me as a young bride long ago, how you loved me and followed me even through the barren wilderness.

First, Our Heavenly Father extended His perfect love, forgiveness and pardoning grace to us through His Son, Jesus.  Then, as we accepted Our Savior, we were welcomed into an intimate relationship with the Father and the Son.  Their love was implanted in us.  We returned that love in a very ardent manner of worship.  We constantly built on that relationship by fervently following the ordinances given to us.  Even through difficulties and discouragements, we clung passionately to our new life in Christ.  Then something happened.  Somehow our love and our passion waned.  But He remembered how we first loved Him.  His love for us never changed.

Any parent who has grown kids has fond memories of how their young children delighted in being in their presence.  They also remember how the zeal of the children being with them diminished as the children grew older and formed their network of friends.  What parent at some point doesn't say, "how I miss those early years."

So it is with Our Heavenly Father.  He remembers how hungry we were to know Him when we first received His Son as Our Savior.  He feels sorrow when He sees our knowledge of Him increasing while our zeal for Him is becoming stale.  He is sad when He sees us spending so much time in the world and so little time with Him.  He longs for us to return to the energy and enthusiasm that we showed Him when we were first born again in Christ.

Let us return to the joyous and fervent moments in Christ that we enjoyed when we were first born again.  Let us turn those memorable moments into the foundation of our ever increasing intimacy with Our Savior.  Let us proclaim our joy so that the world can become a witness.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for pouring out Your perfect love to us so that we are able to return that love to You.  We rejoice in knowing that Your throne is always open to us and You eagerly wait for us to come to be in Your presence.  We pray, Father, that you will fill us with the zeal of young children who run to their earthly parents to express their love and their joy in being in their presence.  May the fire of Your Holy Spirit rekindle our devotion and fervency for You.  We pray these things in the name of the One who loved us so much that He died for us, Jesus Christ.