Encouragement - Continued

Shalom.
I came across the following on the www.newmanmag.com website. It blessed me, so I thought I would share it. Blessings.

Let the River Flow

There can be no greater delight than walking in daily fellowship with the Holy Spirit. What a glorious experience! But it is imperative to seek the Lord continually. Jesus said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me” (John 15:4, NIV).
The delight of daily fellowship with God was not evident in the believers in Ephesus. Although the Ephesian church abounded in praiseworthy works, it is recorded that they had “forsaken” their “first love” (Rev. 2:4, NIV). They had slipped from the privileged position where they were “seated with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” that the apostle Paul mentioned in Ephesians 2:6.
Therefore, the Lord was compelled to exhort them, “Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place” (Rev. 2:5, NIV).
A Christian becomes weak in his faith when he no longer maintains his first love. He becomes “a professional” worshiper—he learns a few Bible verses; he adopts some religious vocabulary; he serves God in a token ministerial aspect; and then he insists, “I know it all.”
How sad! That Christian has lost his first love. The challenge for these times is keeping the flame of the Holy Spirit alive.

—Claudio Freidzon

Lord, I don’t want to lose my first love. Fan the flames of the Spirit in my heart and let me burn with zeal for You.
Claudio Freidzon, Holy Spirit, I Hunger for You (1997), 153, 155.