Week 3 (March 13-19)
“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 2:4-5
The church in Ephesus was crushing it. They worked hard, they patiently endured persecution and trials, they hated sin, they knew their doctrine and could spot false teaching from a mile away. But there was a problem: in all their striving, working, enduring, knowledge, etc., they had forgotten their first love—Jesus Christ. They got everything else right, yet they got the most important thing wrong.
Reading that today, we’re prone to think to ourselves, “How could they miss the most important
thing?!” However, it’s easier than it seems. It’s easy to let serving and “doing ministry” surpass our love for Jesus. It’s oftentimes more exhilarating to boldly denounce cultural immorality than to spend the quiet moments of our days cultivating our relationship with Jesus through prayer and meditating on Scripture. We’re all prone to let our head knowledge surpass our heart’s affections for the One who loves us most (John 15:13).
As we pray together this week, let’s pray that we would be a people who love Jesus more than
anything else (Matthew 10:37). Let’s trust that if we get that one thing right, everything else will fall into place (Matthew 6:33).
PRAY AND ACT
Spend time praying for your church this week. Pray for the people in your Life Group. Pray
for the people you shared a row with last week. Pray for our pastors, staff, deacons, Life Group leaders, and other ministry leaders.
Also, what are some things that stir and awaken your love for Jesus? It may be reading Scripture and other solid Christian resources. Maybe it’s spending time with your church family. Maybe it’s listening to and singing worship music. Whatever it is for you, try to make plans for that this week. Imagine what our corporate worship would be like on Sunday if we all came together after a week of growing and cultivating our love for Christ!
Download the full guide as a pdf here.
VC Devotionals 