“Thus says the LORD: ‘I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.” (Jeremiah 2:2, NKJV)

One of the greatest sources of heartache and brokenness is love that is lost. Two people fall in love and decide to get married. They are mutually attracted, and each admires qualities in the other. At first everything seems to be going well, but then they begin to drift apart. They lose the feelings they had at first and can even forget what first brought them together.

This is what the LORD experienced over the nation of Israel. He had betrothed them to Himself in Egypt and entered into a marriage covenant with them at Mount Sinai. He brought them into the Promised Land and gave them houses they did not build and vineyards they did not plant. He blessed them and subdued nations before them. But they had broken faith with Him and played the harlot with other gods. What had He done wrong so that they forsook Him?

“For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13, NKJV)

The LORD had been a fountain of living water to them, providing them with everything they needed. He satisfied their spiritual thirst with true worship. So why did they forsake Him? God said that they dug cracked and leaky cisterns that could hold no water. They trusted in dead idols that could do nothing. Now God longed for the earlier days of their first love.

Jesus said something similar to the church of Ephesus. They had many admirable qualities. They labored with patience and wisely rejected false apostles. They persevered and had not become weary.

“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” (Revelation 2:4, NKJV)

They were keeping up their religious duties, but they no longer loved Jesus as they had at first. Jesus told them to remember the height from which they had fallen, to repent, and to redo the works they did at first. By recalling the days when they were first saved, perhaps they would fall in love with Him again.

Let us never forget where we were when Christ saved us and forgave us of all our sins. If we have left our first love, then let us repent and seek Him again with all our hearts. Lost love can be found if we humble ourselves, confess our faults, and do the things we did at first.