We mean well, my fellow believers and I.

When it comes to our intentions, I have no doubt that we long to live in a way that reflects our love for Christ. We engage in church, use our interests and talents to serve, join homegroups, muster up courage to share Jesus with our coworkers, and pray faithfully for that friend or family member who doesn’t know Christ. 

But in the midst of our noble intentions, sometimes we get caught up in doing, determined to produce evidence that we are true disciples. It’s astounding how our efforts to do good, be good, and offer good can render us desperately weary when we’ve shifted our focus away from our first love.

While studying Revelation recently, I was forced to pause, struck by contents of the letter that Jesus instructed John to send the church in Ephesus. Instead of commending the church for its dedication to good works, the message rebuked it for prioritizing doing. The community of believers had left their first love, had sacrificed intimacy with Christ for an appearance of diligent discipleship. Where Jesus called the church to simply be in relationship with Him, the church chose to do.

“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance.  I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name,and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had a first.”  –Revelation 2:2-4

How relevant this is to us today.

So often, well-meaning Christians fixate on the doing and miss the being. The secular world constantly encourages us to find worth in our performance and achievements. The eternal grind to measure up is exhausting. At times, it can seem like God’s people are becoming increasingly influenced by the world’s standards, indoctrinated to believe that value is found in success, drowning in the same ocean of busyness, stress, and confusion as everyone else. I myself struggle to silence the notion that I must do more to be more.

Think back to when you first entered a personal relationship with Christ. Remember the joy that filled you, the rush of immense hope, the sense that everything would be different now. Remember how you craved to know Jesus more, how you thirsted for intimacy with Him. What happened to squelch that first love? How can you rekindle the flame?

Jesus answers these questions today with the same message He sent the church in Ephesus all those centuries ago: When you find yourself hurtling through the chores that crowd your busy schedule, when your soul creaks under the pressure to keep responsibilities afloat, even as you offer your time and effort in my name, “repent and do the things you did at first.” (Rev. 2:5) 

God often speaks these words to my heart, saying, “My child, no matter how much good you try to do for me, your works will never replace the love relationship I yearn for.”

So, I slow down.

I reflect.

I ask God to show me what idols have replaced just being with Him.

I repent for prioritizing doing over being.

I accept His love and grace all over again, resting in the knowledge that He is not condemning me; rather, He is lovingly realigning my focus, intentions, and heart with His.

And once more, as intimacy with Jesus swells within my spirit like nothing else ever has or will, I am washed in a peace that surpasses understanding. (Phil. 4:7)

My prayer is that you will remember God’s number one desire: that you love Him. I pray that you will meditate on His first and greatest commandment to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matt. 22:37) It is in this place of unadulterated passion that you will find the deepest peace, the greatest freedom, and the ability to love.