January 12
Verse of the Day for January 12
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.Revelation 2:4 KJV
The Key of Beginnings · Day 12 of 31
Reflection · 4 min read
The Thing You Did At First
The letter to Ephesus opens with genuine praise. He commends their works, their labour, their patience, the fact that they cannot bear evil and have tested false apostles and have not fainted. By any external measure this is a strong church.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Thou hast left thy first love. Not lost — left. It is the word for departing from a place you were standing in.
And the remedy he gives is stranger than the diagnosis. Remember from where you have fallen, repent, and do the first works.
Do the things you did at the beginning. Not feel what you felt at the beginning — do what you did. The prescription for a cooled heart is an action, and specifically an old action.
That is unexpectedly practical. He does not tell them to work up the affection. He tells them to go back and repeat the early practices, and lets the affection follow the practice.
Not feel what you felt.Do what you did.
A first love is not recovered by staring at how cold you have become. It is recovered by doing the small early things again, deliberately, before you feel like it.
The feeling was never the engine. It was the exhaust.
Carry this today
What did you do at the beginning that you have quietly stopped doing?
Pray
Read Revelation 2:1–5
1Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; 2I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: 3And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. 4Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 5Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
Keep praying
Reflection by Collins Asein, from the daily devotionals in the PrayerKey app. Bible text: King James Version.