Difficulties Maintaining Your First Love

"Quite often people ask me, 'How can I pray for you?' I always answer them
the same way. I want them to pray that where ever I go and whatever I do,
I will never leave my first love." - Dr. Bill Bright

With all the work that Dr. Bright did through Campus Crusade for Christ and the Jesus Film, how could this be his continual request? Wasn't this a natural overflow of the work he was doing?

Steve Douglass, the current president of Campus Crusade for Christ, recently sent out his monthly newsletter to the Crusade staff family on this topic. In it he states three reasons maintaining your first love as a leader is difficult.

1. It is easy for a busy leader not to find time to spend with God.
2. It is also easy for a focused leader to basically ignore God during the day.
3. A confident leader can think too highly of his or her abilities.

Confidence is only valuable when it has as its foundation a deep love for God. Paul, a highly educated apostle, told the Corinthians that he resolved to know nothing while he was with them, so that their faith may not rest on man's wisdom [or power] (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).

Dependence on your strength or ability will only produce fruit that will ultimately be burned up in fire. We need to depend on God, and maintaining our first love is a prerequisite for that dependence.

• What are some ways that enable you to keep God as your first love?

"If I failed to maintain my first love, my disobedience
would undermine all I hold dear." - Dr. Bill Bright