Archive for the 'Bible Studies for Life' Category
Returning to Our First Love
Have you ever had a hobby that you simply walked away from? Maybe you collected stamps or football cards as a child and gave it up. Maybe you collected Barbie dolls then grew out of your love for them.
Perhaps it was a life decision that took away your hobby. Many people give up their “toys” when marriage or the first child comes along. Having to walk away from a jet ski, sports car, or club membership isn’t always a first choice!
For those who have had to give up a hobby, have you ever been blessed to go back to it? Maybe after the kids were grown and gone you found a place for that Lionel train display, got a different sports car, or began to travel again like when you were first married.
Returning to a loved hobby is an incredibly sweet thing, but that pales in comparison to returning to a lost love in the human realm. Whether it is one thought dead in war to be found alive, or the reuniting of two sweethearts long separated by the intricacies of life, reuniting with a loved one is precious. This is even more true when we are returning to the God we once loved with all our hearts, but no longer do.
Love for Christ is a Way of Life
As I state in Bible Studies for Life, when you experience spiritual awakening, you will “return to a love for Christ that permeates everything you do.”1 Love for Christ isn’t a Sunday morning or Wednesday night ritual. It is a way of life; it consumes everything within us.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus has mixed reviews for the church at Ephesus, although He commends them for a number of good deeds, including intolerance of evil and false teachers, endurance and strength. All the good must have sounded like so much dust in the wind when Jesus brought forward the one thing He had against this church: it had abandoned the love it had at the first.2
Works Do Not Surpass Love
Jesus’ correction is swift and specific: “Remember how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at the first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place–unless you repent.”3 The Ephesians’ loss of their love for Christ was no small thing in the eyes of the Lord. It revealed their hearts. Works for Christ did not surpass love for Christ.
That’s the very battle we face today. It’s easier to look at church attendance, working hard, leading a small group, and similar things as all God wants from us. But God wants our hearts! He wants us to love Him, and to be passionate for His presence. Loving God leads to serving Him, but serving God never takes the place of loving Him.
During this week, take some time to reconnect your heart to God’s heart. Tell Him you love Him. Remember those days when you could not get enough of His word, when you could not pray enough, when most of the day was filled with thoughts of His goodness. Then ask Him to restore it each and every day.
Now is the Time to Lead,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
General Editor, Bible Studies for Life
President, Southern Baptist Convention
References
1– Bible Studies for Life, Awake, Ronnie Floyd
2– Revelation 2:2-4, summary
3– Revelation 2:6
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Return to God
Have you ever been under anesthesia? Remember what it’s like trying to wake up? That groggy, foggy-headedness, the heavy eyelids and attempts to focus on what the sounds are around you?
Some people talk nonsensical when coming out of that deep sleep, a sleep I’ve heard called “coma sleep.” It’s a bizarre sensation.
Wake Up! Wake up!
Have you ever felt like you were under some kind of spiritual anesthesia, like no matter how hard you tried to focus, God’s voice wasn’t clear? Like the nurse saying, “Wake up! Wake up!” you know someone is talking, but it just isn’t making sense. Or maybe the spiritual sleep was so deep it was only upon waking up you realized something drastic had happened.
Over the last several years, God has burdened me tremendously over the need of our churches to experience revival, a manifestation of the presence of God and nation to experience awakening, an experience where millions would come to Christ. It does seem to many (and to me) that we are in a deep, coma-like spiritual malaise. Our country is experiencing moral upheaval and most churches seem powerless to respond.
We need to return to God.
In our spiritual walk we face the possibility of failing or becoming distracted from our pursuit of God. As I noted in Bible Studies for Life, Awake: “It may be subtle at first, but after a while we look back and realize we’re not the people we wanted to be. At that point we often wonder, What does it take to get back on course?”1
How do we return to God
There is no clearer story in the Old Testament of leaving the path of God than Jonah. The book of Jonah contains a personal story of repentance and return (the prophet himself), and a national story of repentance and return (the city of Nineveh).
Jonah’s run is in chapter 1, where God says, “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because their wickedness has confronted Me. However, Jonah got up to flee to Tarshish from the Lord’s presence.”2 Chapter 3 records the repentance of Nineveh, “Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, ‘In 40 days Nineveh will be demolished!’ The men of Nineveh believed in God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth–from the greatest of them to the least.”3
In each of these instances people had departed from following God, repented, then returned to Him. The keys to seeing God move among us are repentance from sin and returning to Him. It will happen no other way.
Repent and Return
It could be there are many you will see this week, either at church or a small group study, who have departed from following God. Distracted, they are living for self rather than for God.
It can be easy to sit in judgment on those who are not following. Yet, some of the time we are just as guilty. We need to repent and return. We need to awaken from spiritual slumber that we might follow God once again.
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
General Editor, Bible Studies for Life
President, Southern Baptist Convention
References
1– Bible Studies for Life, Awake, Ronnie Floyd
2– Jonah 1:2-3a, HCSB
3– Jonah 3:4-5, HCSB
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.