Title: Hardening First Love/Rev 2:1~5
Content: The hardening of first love/Rev 2:1~5
“But I have this against you, that you have left your first love… ” (Rev 2:1-5)
However, after the church had a great revival, it was gradually becoming institutionalized and gradually losing its first love. Prayers ceased and worship began to lean toward formality. It was getting farther and farther away from the original appearance.
Wherever humans gather, traditions are born, organized, and fossilized as time goes by. As you do this, the innocence and passion of love you had in the first place slowly disappear. But the church must be different. The church must always exist as a living being with the Lord, and it must be the life of the saints. You have to keep your first love.
In Judo, a sport, there is a technique called ‘hardening’. If you continue to harden for 30 seconds, you win. It is to harden the opponent by immobilizing it. Use your legs to wrap your opponent's waist and legs, and your hands and arms to wrap around the opponent's upper body and try to stiffen it up.
The devil is a hardening player. It's an attempt to solidify by using attributes that people like to settle down, stay, and lie down. They try to solidify a formal and conscious religious life, and to harden their hatred, envy, and jealousy of others. It is the devil's strategy and method to solidify.
Of course, even if we harden it, how great it would be if we hardened it in a good way. How great would it be if we read the Bible a year, pray for one hour a day, evangelize three people a year, pray every morning, receive holy water every week, and tithe every month?
Don't be hardened by the devil. Then our lives will end in a battle with the devil. Even if you are hardened, you must be hardened for the good. It must be hardened into the pure form of the first love. That's why the passion and innocence we had at the beginning should continue for the rest of our lives. The life of walking with the Lord through the Word and prayer is the devil's greatest enemy. Please restore and harden your first love.