Eternal Love

There’s a 1988 song by the Christian rock group, Petra called “First Love.” Let me quote you the lyrics:

1) Sometimes I feel I’m pulled in so many wrong directions

Sometimes I feel the world seducing my affections

It’s not that I don’t know the way It’s just a heart that’s prone to stray

But with my weaknesses admitted

You will keep all that I’ve committed

So I commit my heart to You, my First Love

2) It’s taken me some time to try to comprehend

A love that doesn’t change - a love without an end

A love that keeps forgiving

A love of sacrifice and giving

I delight myself in You, my First Love

3) If I ever lack endurance

I remember Your assurance

That Your only banner over me is love

If my heart begins to waiver

Woo me back, my loving Savior

Woo me back till I return to my First Love

Chorus: First Love - First Love

My soul longs after You

First Love - First Love

I want my heart to stay so true

Because You first loved me

Jesus You will always be

You will always be my First Love”

Allow me to unpack this a little. In the 1st verse, we make the confession that we’re easily distracted by the world and drawn away from Jesus, but in that confession is also the realization that what we commit to the Lord, He will keep safe for us. In the 2nd verse we confess that it takes us a long time to understand the love Jesus has for us, but it’s there for us to delight in. And in the 3rd verse we confess our weakness and our tendency to wander, but there’s also the plea for Jesus to call us back into that loving relationship we had at the first. And then in the chorus we have the truth of our human soul: we long for the love that only Jesus can offer – and because He loved us first, we too can love one another.

The truth is, Jesus loved us before we were ever born! Sometimes it’s hard to get your head and your heart around this, but Jesus died on the cross out of love for all of us, and more to the point, He was willing to give His life for YOU, because He loved you first!  We are easily sidetracked and are drawn away from Jesus and the church, or we simply wander off. But just because we tend to “lose” Jesus, our first love, does NOT mean that He ever ceases to love us! I’m drawn to the lines of the song, “If my heart begins to waiver, woo me back, my loving Savior.” And I guess I might even change the lyrics from “if” to “when…” WHEN my heart begins to waiver and wander and weaken, that’s when the plea becomes most earnest: woo me back, my loving Savior!

Pastor Corey

Sidney 1st United Methodist Church