My First Love

My first love is Jesus, who saved me from all my sins, who suffered so much for all my wrongs, who took away my shame and brokeness, who showed me amazing love and grace, and who gave me a new life and purpose through faith.

But how many times I had forsaken my first love? Countless times! I had loved Him half-heartedly. I had always unconsciously and consciously started to chase after worldly things such as money, power, people's approval, ability to do certain things and etc. These things are good in the eyes of the world but they never satisfy my soul nor make me a more complete person. When I surrender one of them to God, I unknowingly start to chase after the other worldly thing. It is like a vicious cycle. After all these years of loving Jesus half-heartedly, I concluded that it did not lead me to anywhere. I concluded that I need a paradigm shift of mentality. I must know that the biggest loss is never losing the worldly things which will not last forever. The biggest loss is losing my first love - Jesus.

When we lose Jesus, we lose everything. When we gain Jesus, we gain everything! So I must love Jesus and I must not be distracted by the love for worldly things. We must constantly ask ourselves (or ask people to remind us) who is our first love especially when we feel troubled by worldly things. We must remember the following verses:

Matt 22:37 - Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'

John 16:33b - In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Now I appreciate what apostle wrote below in Phil 3:7-11

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.