Lesson 20: God’s Power Can Return to Us as We Repent of our Current Behavior

Revelation 2:5 - "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first."

It is not enough to merely confess our sins. If we really want that first love back, we need to repent or turn away from our sins. Our flesh hates the word “repent” because it involves change; it involves sacrifice! Even society feeds our natural desire of not wanting to repent by making an art form out of excuse-making.

For instance, our society today calls sin a "disease" or a "social dysfunction" or a "psychological aberration." People are no longer sinners. They are victims! It is because of this victim mentality that people are no longer repenting of their sins.

Call sin what you will, but sin is still sin and it needs to be repented of if you are ever going to get your first love back. No amount of excuses can change that!

If denying, blaming, or excuses will not work, we simply start rationalizing. For instance, we say, "None of my friends love God like they used to," or "At least I show up on Sunday each week," or "No one can love God all the time: Eventually your fire for God will die down. It happens all the time.” But once you head down this road, you are going to start to label your behavior as a necessary evil. And once you call it a necessary evil, it starts to look more and more necessary and less and less evil. You will actually rationalize your lack of love for God as something not to be repented of but a necessary evil! Do you really think that God, who is still right beside you, is going to believe that?


Therefore, we must get rid of our excuses, stop our rationalizing and make a clean break. We must repent and do whatever it takes to ensure that we never go back where we came from, like Julius Caesar did with his army.

When Julius Caesar landed on the shores of England with his well-armed legions, he simultaneously made a bold and decisive move to guarantee the success of his campaign. He marched his men to the edge of the Cliffs of Dover and ordered them to look down at the ships that had brought them across the channel. Every one of them was ablaze! General Caesar had cut off the possibility of a pullback. Since his soldiers were unable to return to the continent, there was nothing left for them to do but advance and conquer, and that is precisely what they did.

If it has been a long time since you advanced in your walk with Christ, then maybe it is because you have been retreating by rationalizing. If it has been years since you walked in victory with Jesus, then maybe the time is now to burn your excuses. People of God, we must take that second step and repent of our current behavior. Unless we do, our lives will never change, and we will never get that first love for Jesus back again.

* When was the last time you were completely honest with God about your relationship with Him?