"Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the Lord" (Lamentations 3:40)

A long absence from Christ is a semi-death to saints who love Him. The saint who depends on Christ for his sense of “righteousness and peace and joy” (Romans 14:17), looks to the door in anticipation of His return. “I sleep, but my heart is awake ...He knocks ... I opened for my beloved, But my beloved had turned away and was gone. My heart leaped up when He spoke. I sought Him, but I could not find Him; I called Him, but he gave me no answer” (Song of Solomon 5:2-6). 

 Was it like this with you when you first got saved? Do remember the honeymoon days, when if your conscience bothered you, you’d do anything to restore intimacy with Christ? Is it like that for you today? Or have you lost your first love and follow Jesus without feeling? Have you gotten used to “a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5)? Let me affectionately warn you, it’s a dangerous thing when a saint doesn’t “walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10). The Greek word translated “worthy” is “axios”, from which we get the English word axiom, which means “self-evident proof”. The New Testament uses axios when there’s a question as to whether or not someone is saved. For example, “You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy” (Revelation 3:4). 

 If you’re sad at your hardness of heart, don’t stop there! Remember where you first received salvation. Go at once to the cross. There, and there only, can you get right with God. No matter how hard, how insensible, how dead you’ve become, go again in rags and poverty, and the defilement of your natural condition. Grab hold of the cross, look into His eyes, bathe in His blood—this will bring you back to your first love; this will restore the simplicity of your faith, and the tenderness of your heart.