How Can We Know that We Love God with Our ‘First Love’?

Here is a brief checklist to see if we really love God as our first priority in life:

If he is the priority in our relationships

This means:

That he really is the most important person in our lives;
That we daily offer adoration – often emotionally, sometimes as an act of the will;

If he is the priority in our time

This means:

That each day we make time to speak with and listen to God, in addition to using any prayer list;
That each day we read Scripture;

If he is the priority in our motives

This means:

That our life aim is to fulfil his purpose for us;
That we offer worship, not primarily to bless and satisfy us but to glorify God;
That we are living sacrifices, our whole lives being an offering, including self-denial;

If he is the priority in our hope

ie. that we really look forward to meeting him either beyond death or at the second coming.

BUT: FIRST LOVE APPLIES TO OUR NEIGHBOUR TOO

If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20)