First Love

Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 19th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Psalms 51:10-12:

"Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit."

How is your first love for the Lord? Do you remember what it was like the day you first gave your life to Christ? It was a romance, wasn't it? It was incredible. You could never get up early enough in the morning to spend time with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. You scrambled to get into your poustinia. What is a poustinia? It's a little house at the end of the garden where the Russians spend time alone with God.

This morning, how is it with you? It's so easy to get sidetracked in this day and age. What kind of company are we keeping, you and I? What do we talk about mostly these days? We've got to get back into the gym. We've got to get back into training, not only physically but more importantly, spiritually. Maybe you and I have forsaken our first love. You say to me, "Please don't say that". No, I'm very serious because this scripture was written by God's very, very special man. His name was David. He used to sit on the hills with his harp, watching his father's sheep, singing to the Lord, praying to the Lord, and then he fell, didn't he, into adultery? He says, "Give me a clean heart, Lord, please don't cast me away from Your presence."

In 2003 I was up in the Mkuzi Game Reserve, in the Northern part of our beloved Kwazulu-Natal, having my quiet time, working as hard as I could, planning my next year of appointments all over the world, and this is the scripture which the Lord gave me, which absolutely flattened me, and I want to share it with you. It's in Revelation 2:4. The Lord says:

"Nevertheless…" meaning, you've done all these things but" I have this against you, that you have left your first love."

We must repent today and get back to our first love. If we lose that, we've lost everything. The Amplified version says: "But I have this [charge] against you, that you have left your first love [you have lost the depth of love that you first had for Me]."

Oh, my dear friend, both you and I today, let us repent before the Lord and say, "Lord, I'm so terribly sorry that I have forsaken my first love. Please renew a right spirit in me."

God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.