Love vs Responsibility

As many of you already know, my new hobby is to make notebooks and journals handmade. Since the first time, I mastered the technique very well. My husband and I were amazed at how good the first two notebooks we made, looked. After that I made a journal all by myself and it also looked perfect.

Yesterday, after showing them to several people, they told me to sell them and that they wanted to order some. So I decided to start making new ones for sale. Do you know what happened?

The first notebook I made was a disaster. Everything went wrong. I found it very difficult this time and felt frustration for several minutes.

I had to breathe and relax for a while and resume the process. After that, I could do 3 more without any effort. While I pictured it as something I like to do, it was not difficult. As soon as I pictured it as a responsibility, things didn’t flow the same way.

The same thing happens to us in our Christian life. When we surrender for the first time at the feet of Jesus, we are living in that first love. We want to tell everyone about Jesus and the change that has occurred in our lives. We want to work on everything possible to expand the kingdom of God. We are volunteers and nobody forces us or calls us to do so!

Over the years, we start losing that first love, and we can change to see the gospel as one more responsibility. There is when we lose our north, we start working in our own strength and we become exhausted, we get frustrated with the results of what we do.

But Jesus Christ gave us the first commandment: “You will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” When we are moved by love, for what we are passionate about, for what we like, things flow. So, living through the salvation we have received is not exhausting. Then the words flow and boldness to speak to others about Jesus.

If your spiritual life feels stagnant, exhausting, reflect if you should return to that first love that gave us energy as children.

If you love God with all your strength, you will also live for Him with all your strength.

Pray to the Father remembering that sacrifice on the cross that attracted us to Him. That we may return through loving that first love with the help of his Holy Spirit so that we can take the name of Jesus everywhere and live for Him for his glory.