God has said: “I will never leave you, never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Hebrews 13:5,6

Last time I mentioned that sometimes when I meditate on the words to the worship chorus, “How Great is Our God,” I insert the words ‘How big’ into the song. The size of our God has a lot to do with why we have so much trouble with the ‘first love’ thing. Loving a Big God takes less effort and less discipline, but it requires more faith.

Doctrinally speaking, we all know that God is all-powerful—He’s stronger than the devil; He’s stronger than our problems. But if you talk with many Christians who say they believe this, practically speaking, their devil is bigger than their God, and their problems are too. Some, because of their low expectations of God, have not only shied away from seeking their first love for themselves, they’ve actively discouraged other Christians from pursuing their Lover God.

After all, history shows us many times when Christians were rejected, persecuted, even martyred. When we focus on that, fear becomes our master and we end up walking by fear instead of by faith. History also shows us many times when Christians have seen God rescue them out of certain death. When we focus on that, our confidence in God is fed and we end up walking by faith instead of fear.

Those who focus on our need to protect ourselves and our flocks will always be overwhelmingly aware of the power of the devil. Their God will always be small in their experience of Him. But if our hearts are completely fixed to the One who promises to never leave us nor forsake us, our God grows in our experience and we find Him almighty. We live by faith, not by fear.

Back to the point: Big-God believers are living by faith because “whatever doesn’t proceed from faith is sin” (Rom 14:23). Since small-God people are motivated by fear in one way or another, fear keeps them defeated; focused on the little things of Christianity and hyping these little things Tragically, these things become spiritual placebos, overwhelming their attention on Jesus and stealing away their first love.

To those who had left their first love, Jesus said, “Consider the heights from which you’ve fallen and repent.” The need to repent suggests that He considered the loss of first love a sin.
Having a small view of God doesn’t just make us weak. It’s sinful. Jesus is looking to be our first love.