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- ❤️ First Love Reflections #1
❤️ First Love Reflections #1
Reflecting on God's love for us, and simply responding.
Jae Leeholland
August 10, 2025
Dear God,
Thank you for the morning sun that brightens the day and the shimmering rays that provide warmth of your love.
Every day is truly a gift from you, and we welcome all the beauty, love, and joy that comes our way as well as the trials and sufferings that bring us closer to you.
To know you is having the bread of life, the living water, and the eternal life. So, I pray you’ll keep my flesh at bay, and instead fill my body, soul, and spirit with all that is of you.
Shapen my heart to want your Word more than the food, the living water of the Holy Spirit to quench my thirst instead of the desires of this world, and the eternal life above all that is fleeting.
Jesus, the everlasting light of this world and the prince of peace, may we seek communion with you every hour, every minute, and every second. Help me put aside all that is between us so that you and I can be in union as you and the Father are one.
I pray for the church, Lord Jesus. May the bride face towards you as a sunflower would. Not looking left and right, but looking at you and you alone.
May we be focused on worshipping you in the way it pleases you above all else. Help us be focused on being devoted to your Word and teachings, prayers, fellowship, and communion over all that is measurable and impressive in our eyes.
May the followers of the Way be known for how we love and forgive one another in the name of Jesus. As radical as it may sound in the year 2025, especially living in a culture that’s so obsessed with self-promotion, may we be moved to serve the needs of others and place our trust in you to take care of ourselves.
I lift up the children of our future into your hands. I pray that their hearts will be softened and bent towards the desires of your heart. No, I do not believe it’s coincidence that as I wrote this paragraph the following song started playing “Psalm 103:17-19” by Verses, Jason Polley:
“But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children's children,”
May the world grow to have empathy and benevolence towards the unborn. Stir our hearts to pray for the ones without voice and power, for you alone are sovereign and capable of rescuing the needy.
We aren’t deserving of your love. What a friend we have in Jesus Christ. What a father we have in our Lord Almighty God. What an advocate and counselor we have in the Holy Spirit. You alone are worthy of our praises and all that is within us.
In all that we lack, we entrust you to provide. Help us be still and know you are God. The Creator of the universe who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The way, the truth, and the life all lead to you— what else shall we want?
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
Righteous justice I deserved for my sins, and yet you showed mercy and grace: you did not give me what I deserved and instead gave me what I did not deserve!
So, may we boast all the more of our weaknesses so that you’ll be made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).
Praise you, God. All that is within me praise you! All that is around me praise you!
May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Prune all that is within me to bear the fruits of the Spirit all the days of my life.
With love,
Jae
“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 at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” (Revelation 2:3-5)
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