Spurgeon: 6 Reasons Why We Have Lost Our Passionate Love For God

Charles Spurgeon preached on Romans 5:5 and of “the love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit”. Toward the end of the sermon, he gives six reasons for why we have “lost our first love” (Rev. 2:4) and dwindled in a passionate love for God:

1. We have neglected prayer.
   "The common sin of God’s people is slackness in prayer. If there be one sin that needs to be preached about more than another just now, it is the sin of the omission of secret dealings with God…I am persuaded more and more the longer I observe my own self, and certainly the longer I observe others, that when we grow weak on our knees it is a sign of weakness throughout the entire man. How can you expect to know much of the love of God if you will not go with Him? If you give no time to meditation, if you have no season for searching the Scriptures, if you have no periods for communion with God, why wonder if you should miss enjoyment with Him?”
   

2. We have neglected the means of grace.
   "Step into most of the places of worship in London and look at the weeknight service—and in some country places they have to give up theirs because there are not enough to come, to make it worth their while to hold such meetings. There is a sad deficiency in some places of a love of the means of grace…They know but little of the emotion of David when he counted that to be a dry and thirsty land when he could not go up to the public worship of God.”
   

3. We have been spiritually lazy.
   "Idle Christians must expect to feel the whip or the rod, but if we will do what we may for Christ, we shall have sweet consolation in the doing of it, and the love of God shall be shed abroad in our hearts.”
   

4. We have delighted in worldliness.
   "If these things charm you, it is not likely that Christ will charm you longer. If you get worldly, you cannot be spiritual at the same time.”
   

5. We have weak faith in His love.
   "If we trusted Christ more, and honored Him more by resting upon the faithful love of His Father, would we not find His love shed abroad in us?”
   

6. We have failed to give thanksgiving to God.
   "We have not thanked God enough for the comfortable seasons that we have enjoyed and therefore He keeps us hungering until we thank Him for what He did in days gone by.”

For the full sermon in PDF format, click here.