Strive to keep your First Love with HIM

Numbers 11:1 AND THE people grumbled and deplored their hardships, which was evil in the ears of the Lord, and when the Lord heard it, His anger was kindled; and the fire of the Lord burned among them and devoured those in the outlying parts of the camp.

We may be tested in our lack and/or abundance. You must always have a thankful heart in all of your situations. You must have a thankful heart to get out of the "belly of the whale" situation. To complain and deplore your circumstances is considered evil to His ear. Otherwise, you may be devoured by His Fire that destroys you rather than baptizes you.

Hebrews 2:7-4 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you will hear His voice,8 Do not harden your hearts, as [happened] in the rebellion [of Israel] and their provocation and [a]embitterment [of Me] in the day of testing in the wilderness,9Where your fathers tried [My patience] and tested [My forbearance] and [b]found I stood their test, and they saw My works for forty years.10And so I was provoked (displeased and sorely grieved) with that generation, and said, They always err and are led astray in their hearts, and they have not perceived or recognized My ways and become progressively better and more experimentally and intimately acquainted with them.11Accordingly, I swore in My wrath and indignation, They shall not enter into My rest.12 [Therefore beware] brethren, take care, lest there be in any one of you a wicked, unbelieving heart [which refuses to cleave to, trust in, and rely on Him], leading you to turn away and desert or stand aloof from the living God.13But instead warn (admonish, urge, and encourage) one another every day, as long as it is called Today, that none of you may be hardened [into settled rebellion] by the deceitfulness of sin [by the fraudulence, the stratagem, the trickery which the delusive glamor of his sin may play on him]. 14 For we [c]have become fellows with Christ (the Messiah) and share in all He has for us, IF ONLY WE HOLD OUR FIRST NEWBORN CONFIDENCE AND ORIGINAL ASSURED EXPECTATION [in virtue of which we are believers] FIRM AND UNSHAKEN TO THE END.

Hebrews 3:11 Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and STRIVE diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience [into which those in the wilderness fell].

Luke 13:24 STRIVE to enter by the narrow door [force yourselves through it], for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.

It is very easy to fall away or be led astray into deception. It is very easy to be on the road of religion and deceived. Do not take His Grace for granted. Do not trample on His Grace! Do not give any gap to sin or it will begin to harden that area of your heart. Crucify and die to yourselves daily.

1 Peter 1 SO BE done with every trace of wickedness (depravity, malignity) and all deceit and insincerity (pretense, hypocrisy) and grudges (envy, jealousy) and slander and evil speaking of every kind.

You may have confessed with your mouth and believed in your heart some time ago but what are you doing now with your actions in life. Are you believing or are you denying HIM with your actions. Your actions are your words.

Are you enduring all that has been placed in front of you for His Glory and for the death of your flesh? Or are you flapping like a fish out of water, fleshy!

2 Timothy 2:12 (AMP) If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny and disown and reject Him, He will also deny and disown and reject us.

We will not only eat the fruit of our words but our actions will determine whether we believe or deny HIM regardless of what we profess.

Titus 1:16 (AMP) They profess to know God [to recognize, perceive, and be acquainted with Him], BUT DENY AND DISOWN AND RENOUNCE HIM BY WHAT THEY DO; they are detestable and loathsome, unbelieving and disobedient and disloyal and rebellious, and [they are] unfit and worthless for good work (deed or enterprise) of any kind.

Revelation 2:3-4 I know you are enduring patiently and are bearing up for My name's sake, and you have not fainted or become exhausted or grown weary. 4 But I have this [one charge to make] against you: that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first [you have deserted Me, your first love].

Even though we may endure waiting for our Beloved Lord, may we never lose our First Love for HIM. Lord, grant us more Grace!

Fire of God
Steve Yong Kim
April 7, 2012