"Thus says the LORD, 'I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.'"
(Jeremiah 2:2)
Jeremiah is a big book, containing many prophecies, both in warnings and promises. But his judgments begin here: the loss of youthful love for the Lord. He refers to the devotion of a new bride to her husband. That is, the willingness to follow anywhere and to have no other joy than in her new lifelong companion. It is a love like that which often characterizes the first months of betrothal and marriage. This is what the Lord really wants from us -- and the source of all good things to follow -- our fervant and devoted love, that we personally delight in him like no other:
At that time in her wilderness wanderings Israel, in spite of the many other faults she had, had only the Lord and was truly and fully satisfied with him. All the blessings of the new land were yet in the future, and they had not yet been distracted (or entranced) by prosperity and success. It seems as if the gifts of God, his blessings, have the potential of becoming idols, or distractions to our devotion to God. Even good things can corrupt when they become ultimate things.
Christians are no different. The longer we serve the Lord the easier it is to find our pleasure in other things, even his blessings, rather than in him. We become devoted to lesser things, or false things, and so become deceived:
And it is imperative that we find, recover, or return to our first, true, young love:
God wants my love, first and foremost.
(Jeremiah 2:2)
Jeremiah is a big book, containing many prophecies, both in warnings and promises. But his judgments begin here: the loss of youthful love for the Lord. He refers to the devotion of a new bride to her husband. That is, the willingness to follow anywhere and to have no other joy than in her new lifelong companion. It is a love like that which often characterizes the first months of betrothal and marriage. This is what the Lord really wants from us -- and the source of all good things to follow -- our fervant and devoted love, that we personally delight in him like no other:
And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD... And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, 'You are my people'; and he shall say, 'You are my God.'" (Hosea 2:19, 20, 23)
At that time in her wilderness wanderings Israel, in spite of the many other faults she had, had only the Lord and was truly and fully satisfied with him. All the blessings of the new land were yet in the future, and they had not yet been distracted (or entranced) by prosperity and success. It seems as if the gifts of God, his blessings, have the potential of becoming idols, or distractions to our devotion to God. Even good things can corrupt when they become ultimate things.
Christians are no different. The longer we serve the Lord the easier it is to find our pleasure in other things, even his blessings, rather than in him. We become devoted to lesser things, or false things, and so become deceived:
"I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ." (2 Corinthians 11:2-3)
And it is imperative that we find, recover, or return to our first, true, young love:
"I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first." (Revelation 2:3-5)
God wants my love, first and foremost.
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