My 1st Love

I am addicted to love. I cant get enough of it. As people we all have this inner desire to be made much of. For someone to come along and elevate us. To say “I want you more than all the others”, “you are my favorite”, I love you!”. We all deep down long for a romance to be loved and thought much of. I am a selfish sinner and I want my pride fed.
Romance and love in and of it self is not wrong. It’s a good thing two be loved and two love others. No one would fault a father for the love that he bestows on his son, it would not be thought wrong for lovers to spend countless hours on the phone and to be consumed by the thought of the other. My concern is why don’t I love and long for Jesus in this way. I constantly put the things and people that I love above him. That is wrong!
I think of the story that most believers know so well: Abraham and Isaac Gen22: God tells Abraham to offer up his only son to Him. He has been promised so much in this child. It was many years in his coming. But this man of faith takes his son and walks up that hill because he put nothing and no one in front of his God! He followed a big God, one whom he trusted to do the best and highest good for him. So many times we put the weight of our lives on the shoulders of others. We expect those whom we love to always be there for us to lift us up and bring us out of the pain and sorrow. We put them in the place of God, we make them idols. Abraham did not, he knew that God was his all his hope his life his breath, and if he wanted to take his only son from him than this mighty God who he served would fill the void. Not only feel it but be his Joy.
John Piper says “Nothing has a personal worth great enough to meet the deepest longing of our hearts”, we all long to be completed. But He is the only one who can take that longing away. We must be willing to take the ones we love and place them on the alter. We say “God you are all I want! You are all I need! I want no one, and nothing to keep me from the true highest and best making much of you”. To do this will not bring sorrow but joy! Jesus the hope of the gospel the true treasure we should long for, he will take the place of those we place before him.
I don’t want to love those I hold dear less. That is not my goal. Loving them is not wrong. Putting them before God or placing them in a roll that is meant for him alone is what is to be avoided. I want to love wide open to hold nothing back. To do this I must put Him as my first love. When I can do that I will love those I cherish more deeply and in the truest since of the word.
I pray that The God of all grace will give me the strength to lift up all those i put in His place. I give all my relationships to Him. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away blessed be the name of the Lord. May I love them more deeply by his great power and for His Glory!