“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”

— Revelation 2:4

Many of us vividly remember the day we gave our hearts to Christ. We were awash in love and warmth. Ah, my friends, our first love. There is nothing that can replace the first time we felt saturated with unconditional love.

Sadly, though, many of us have gone adrift. Our hearts have wandered. Maybe you can relate. Perhaps you’re not feeling as connected with God as you once did. Or maybe you don’t have your old passion for doing God’s will.

We all need to ask ourselves, “Have I remained true to my first love? Do I love Christ as when I first loved Him?” If not, Christ has a solution for those of us with diseased hearts.

There are three parts to Christ’s “prescription.” The first is to remember from where we have come. Christ says, “Remember from whence thou art fallen.” God asks us to respond wholeheartedly to our salvation. We can give no less. Christ has loved us even to the point of enduring the pit of Hell for our sake. How can we not reciprocate this love? God created and saved us to love Him forever.

The second part of Christ’s prescription is repentance. Because of evil, our love for God may have become lukewarm. Satan works to cool that love and constantly pours the waters of this world and its trappings upon us to kill the flame of our love for Christ. To revive that fire, we must confess and turn away from evil.

The third part is our return. God wants us to turn back to Him fully, holding nothing back. We must get down on our knees. Once we’ve humbled ourselves before God, we must ask Him to light such a flame in our hearts that it shall never go out. We need to ask for His forgiveness and cleansing and the ability to move forward in His grace.

When we are in love, we can accomplish all sorts of things for the object of our affections. When we’re out of love, even the smallest effort can seem burdensome. Today ask God to show you what your first love is. If you find that it isn’t Him, ask Him to help you remember where you came from, repent of your lukewarm attitude, and return to that fire of your first love.

“Oh, make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love for Thee.”
“O Sacred Head” (Hymn)

“But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.”

— James 3:8–10

Do you remember the last time you said something you wished you could take back? Do you remember the consequences? We all have said things we later regret. You’d think we’d learn, but we continue to fall into that trap. Someone once said, “The trouble with talking too fast is that we say things we have not thought of yet.” Why do we persist in doing something we know will hurt us in the end? Because we have no control over our tongues.

The Bible says the tongue is a great evil. James compares it to a bridle, a fire, an untamed creature, and a double fountain, among other things. The tongue is like a bridle because even though the bit is very small, it controls the horse’s movement. In the same way, a little word can change the whole direction of our lives. The tongue is also like a fire. Just as one little spark can start a raging forest fire of destruction, one little word can destroy a relationship, a hope, a life. The tongue is like a caged but untamed animal that paces restlessly back and forth, looking for any opportunity to escape. Though humans have tamed all kinds of wild beasts, they cannot tame their own tongues. When we least expect it, a harmful word escapes. As well, the tongue is like a double fountain that brings forth both fresh water and bitter water. Just as saltwater poured into fresh water makes all water salty, so bitter words absorb the sweet. If you bless God but also curse your brother or sister, your good words lose their effectiveness.

Our tongues can get us into all sorts of trouble. First, there are the sins of blasphemy, cursing, and profanity. The Third Commandment forbids these. The Ninth Commandment forbids deceit and lying. God said it is better not to make a vow than to make one and break it. We should keep our vows, even if we have to make sacrifices to do so. Backbiting is another sin of the tongue. The backbiter speaks maliciously of others, then talks behind their backs. Gossip is close kin to backbiting.

Do any of these habits hit a little close to home? If so, confess them. Ask God to show you how to better control your tongue. And today make it a goal to bless others with your words.

“Many a life has been ruined by a thoughtless word.”

“And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

— Philippians 4:19

Do you often find yourself at month’s end with more bills than you have money to pay? Do you have any needs that are going unmet? Well, Jesus Christ is our all in all; He meets all our needs, whatever they may be.

Too often, though, we miss out on His blessings because we foolishly cling to the tattered rags of our own ability; we constantly look to ourselves for our provision. But we don’t have to. Scriptures make it clear that God will take care of all our needs (and even some of our wants). Take, for example, the specific promise Paul recounts: “And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Russ Johnston observes that this verse doesn’t say, “And my God shall supply all your needs according to your ability to make money;” rather, it says, “according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

I believe the “Jehovah texts” in the Old Testament can help us remember that Jesus will meet all our needs. The first of these, Jehovah-Shalom, means, “I am thy peace.” We can find our peace in God. When we need soothing, He will lead us beside still waters. A second such text, Jehovah-Rohi, means, “I am thy shepherd.” God will give us guidance throughout our lives. We don’t need to strike out on our own apart from Him; He will lead us wherever we need to go. Yet another, Jehovah-Jireh, means, “I am the One who provides.” Whatever our needs, Jehovah Himself will provide. And Jehovah-Shammah means, “I am the One who is there.” Wherever we are, whatever we need, God is there.

Don’t you feel comforted, knowing that through all the changes of life, through all the ups and downs of the economy—inflation, hyper-inflation, recession, or depression—God’s ability to provide never changes? What a sense of security we have when we rest in that fact. Today, lay your needs at Jesus’ feet. Ask Him to provide, then trust that He will fulfill His promise to “supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

“You can’t stand on promises [from the Bible]
if you don’t know what they are.”
Christian Song

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

— Philippians 4:6–7, niv

One of the best definitions of worry that I’ve ever heard is “interest you pay on debts you may never owe.” Have you paid interest like that recently?

Worry and anxiety take a great toll on our minds and bodies. For example, research has shown that anxiety causes high blood pressure. Researchers placed a mouse in a cage. At another location within the mouse’s sight, they placed a cat in a cage. The cat had no contact with the mouse: their cages weren’t close together, the cat never escaped from its cage, and the cat never had an opportunity to threaten the mouse. But the cat was in the same room, and the mouse knew it. The mouse kept its eyes on the cat all the time. Six to twelve months of testing revealed the mouse had developed very high blood pressure. Nothing had happened to it. Its life had never been in jeopardy. But worry almost killed it.

So many of us are like that mouse, seeing potential danger and borrowing trouble that may never come. Worry is the sand the Devil wants to throw into the machinery of your life. If you let it, worry will tear up your body and rip apart your mind.

Instead of worrying, we should pray about our concerns, giving them to our Lord. As one person said, “When I worry, I go to the mirror and say to myself, ‘This tremendous thing which is worrying me is beyond a solution. It is especially too hard for Jesus Christ to handle.’ After I have said that, I smile and then I am ashamed.” If we would only learn the secret of faith, we could live serene lives. Paul said, “Be anxious for nothing.” Paul’s word for anxiety (merimnao) means “to rip in half.” Don’t let potential problems rip you in half. Stop paying interest into that bank. Instead, hand your concerns to Jesus today. Let Him take care of them and, in their place, give you peace that surpasses understanding.

“Peace is such a precious jewel that I would
give anything for it but truth.”
Matthew Henry

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

— Psalm 23:1

On a scale from one to ten (ten being the highest), what is your daily level of stress? Do you cruise through life at level two? Or do you constantly run on all cylinders at level nine? Seventy-five years ago, the only people who used the term “stress” were engineers talking about the physical pressure placed on objects. But now we use the term to express the pressure we feel mentally and emotionally as we live through each day. Many physicians and researchers spend all of their time dealing with stress-related disorders, as hospital beds fill up with businessmen, bricklayers, housewives, and children. There’s no question about it—this is the Age of Anxiety.

But God never intended us to live stress-filled lives. The Bible states that worry is a sin, commanding us to “be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:6). Yet we don’t live in line with this command. Instead, we worry and fret about our jobs, our families, our financial status, and everything else under the sun. Many of us don’t know how to cope because we don’t have the internal strength to withstand the pressures from without. Many seek solutions in drugs and alcohol. But God has given us a far more effective tranquilizer: Psalm 23.

This jewel of Scripture can so effectively take away our fears and worries that I commend it as a prescription from the great physician Himself, Jesus Christ. Psalm 23 is God’s tranquilizer. Take it regularly, and you’ll find what the world is desperately looking for and finding: the peace that passes all understanding. Grasping even the first sentence, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want,” can do wonders for the human heart.

Author Thomas Carlyle made this astute point, which can reduce our stress: “Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.” Thus, with God’s help, we should live one day at a time, trusting God to take care of our daily needs.

Do you feel stressed today? Then remember that the Lord is your shepherd who will take care of every concern you have. Turn your worries over to Him today, and allow His peace to guard your heart.

“Peace is such a precious jewel that I would
give anything for it but truth.”
Matthew Henry

“If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”

— 2 Corinthians 11:30, niv

How well do you do when an occasion calls for going above and beyond the call of duty? If you need some encouragement in this area, then consider George Wishart, a sixteenth-century Scotsman. You may have never heard of Wishart, but he is one of the great heroes of our Christian faith. Even before the Reformation came to Scotland, he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Wishart lived in a time when a plague decimated great numbers of people on the continent of Europe. As that plague drew near to one of Scotland’s cities, the people panicked and raced to call for the most godly and saintly man they knew. The man they chose was Wishart. Wishart answered the call and went outside the gates of the city. There he knelt on his knees and prayed to God to cease the plague’s onslaught. History reports that the plague spread no further.

After this tremendous victory, Wishart went immediately to one of the cities that had already been hit by the plague. Those who had contracted the plague huddled outside the city gates, locked out of the city, while those untouched remained inside, cringing in fear. Wishart climbed on top of the city wall and began fearlessly preaching the Gospel to those who were dying without and those who were cringing within. Yet, in spite of his courage, his willingness to venture all for Christ, the people declared him a heretic in those dark days and condemned him to burn at the stake.

Outside the gates of the castle, the people erected the stake and piled up the wood. As Wishart approached the stake, he knelt down, lifted his face to Heaven, and prayed, reciting parts of the psalms. Then Wishart stood, took the executioner by the shoulders, and kissed him on the cheek, explaining to him that the kiss was a token of forgiveness. Once they had bound Wishart to the stake, they lit the timber, and the flames carried George Wishart’s soul into Paradise.

Wishart remains an example to us of prayer and courage. If you face a situation that requires you to go above and beyond the call of duty, let Wishart’s story encourage you. Trust in God to give you what you need to make it through, and go forth willingly to fulfill His call for your life.

“Christianity has made martyrdom
sublime, and sorrow triumphant.”
Edwin H. Chapin

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

— Mark 8:35

When, at the end of your life on earth, you look back over your life, what do you hope to have accomplished or experienced? I think we would all like to “go for the gusto,” pursuing life with a capital “L”. But many pursue this goal in the wrong way. Sadly, even many Christians seek life with a capital “L” in a way that will prevent them from ever attaining it.

People miss out on abundant life because it is a paradox. The way we truly gain life runs 180 degrees counter to the way we think we gain life. Jesus tells us, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Yet most people frantically do all within their power to save their lives by heaping upon themselves all manner of comforts, pleasures, delights, and securities, not realizing that everything they do destroys the very thing they want to save. As they attempt to gain life, they lose it.

Jesus’ words are difficult. Many people read them, shrug them off, and go on their way, hoping that somehow those words don’t apply to them. For many, those words seem beyond understanding. But let me make it clear: If we focus all our attention and energies upon our material well-being, upon our lives in this world, then we shall lose that higher, greater, and more abundant life that we can have in Christ. Only when we release our lives to Christ, allowing Him to do whatever He wishes through us, do we gain life and gain it abundantly. Live for Jesus every day, including today, and you’ll experience life with a capital “L”.

“Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in;’
aim at earth and you will get neither.”
C. S. Lewis

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

— Philippians 4:13

What would you try if you knew you could not fail? Would you climb a mountain? Learn to fly an airplane? Share the Gospel with your family? The Scripture promises us that we can do “all things.” Have you claimed that promise? A person who professes to believe he or she “can do all things through Christ” and does not exercise that belief is like a miser who has a hundred million dollars in the bank but goes hungry day after day.

For many of us, our belief is more like this: “I can do a few things through Christ, who gives me a little help.” Why do we sometimes believe that we can do only “a few things?” We believe this because we listen to the lies Satan speaks through his voice of discouragement. We believe this because we allow persecution to stop the Lord’s work.

But if we want God to use us, we have to bank on that verse. Those who have turned the world upside down—Hudson Taylor, Adoniram Judson, and William Carey—believed God could do mighty things through them. They made this verse their life verse, and it transformed them. And even though the apostle Paul was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, and left for dead, he attempted great things for God because he expected great things from God. He lived by the verse he had penned—“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

If you let the truth of this verse permeate your thinking, it can transform your life. We achieve only a fraction of what we could because we don’t take God at His Word. Are your expectations too low? Do you dream big dreams but never act on them? Then ask God to plant this promise deep in your soul and help you live in His power.

“Man, with God’s help and personal dedication,
is capable of anything he can dream.”
Conrad Hilton

“… to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever …”

— Revelation 1:6

How blessed we’d be if we could give ourselves over, body and soul, to the glorification of our Savior Jesus Christ. John Milton, England’s most profound poet, did precisely this. He was a man molded by the Scriptures, and many consider Milton one of the highest examples of Puritanism. Though he lived much of his life in blindness, God granted him the vision to see things in the vast universe that lie beyond what the rest of humanity can see.

John Milton saw the power of sin that, left unchecked, brings death. He saw the reality of Jesus Christ, the Second Adam. His masterpieces, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, involve two principal characters: the first Adam, by whose disobedience all of humankind plunged into sin; and the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, the beginning of the new creation. Milton’s epic poems describe the tremendous power and deception of sin that had come into this world, wreaking havoc and misery upon the earth. They also contain another reality—Jesus Christ, who gave thirty-three years of perfect obedience to God’s commands, who regained the kingdom for those of us who trust in Him.

Milton was a poet of the invisible. He splashed on a vast canvas the history of the world from eternity to eternity, painting with his pen the greatest panorama of all time. He saw things that no one had ever seen before. And he has shared that vision with others, opening the eyes of millions. Milton believed that humankind has a high calling—to glorify the living Christ—and he fulfilled this calling in all he wrote. May we all have that same vision to be a blessing to God, to open the eyes of others by glorifying Jesus Christ in all we do.

“Beyond compare the Son of God was seen,
Most glorious; in him all his Father shone,
Substantially expressed, and in his face,
Divine compassion visibly appeared,
Love without end, and
without measure grace.”
John Milton

“Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”

— Ephesians 5:19

Do you ever find yourself, without even realizing it, humming a praise song? Did you know that as the Holy Spirit fills you, the joy you experience will express itself in song? The Bible makes it clear that God is bound up with singing. When God created the world, the morning stars sang together for joy. The seraphim and the cherubim praise God around His throne forever, not because God has commanded them to do so, but because in Paradise their song inevitably rises like a wellspring from their hearts to their lips. Even the birds continually sing their praises to God.

Do you have a song of joyfulness in your heart today?

The great saints of the faith expressed their God-given joy in song. Moses wrote songs. The Bible contains a whole collection of prayers and praises written by that sweet psalmsinger of Israel, David. Jesus and the apostles sang. When they partook of the Passover, they sang a hymn. Before his conversion, St. Augustine heard Christians singing songs of praise to God, and because those praises filled his heart to overflowing, he wept for joy.

Christianity is a singing religion more than any other. We have the great hymns of the Reformation, such as Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Wesley wrote hundreds of hymns, and many other Christians have given us hymnals filled with songs of praise. Other religions may have their sad and mournful chants, but only in Christ do people find joy that rises in song. Christians, therefore, should be a singing people. A gentleman of the Church recently told me, “The most exciting day of my life was one day when I was home fixing my dinner. I was just thanking God for everything. I was thanking God for the food, for the pan to cook it in, for the stove, for the hands I had to hold the pan. And I just broke forth in song.” God wants us to have that kind of overflowing joy.

Do you have a favorite song that expresses your joy in Christ? Then sing it today. Sing it as you go about your business, letting your joyfulness overflow in musical praise to God.

“I sing because I’m happy! I sing because I’m free! For His
eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.”
Hymn