Sunday, July 22, 2018

A Good Marriage - A Joyful Life

Free stock photo of nature, flowers, petals, blur



In the identical manner in which God loved Jesus, Jesus loves us. He wants us to remain in His love by keeping God's laws, just as He remains in Our Father's love by keeping them (John 1:9-10).

We celebrate God's unconditional love for us, and we love others with this same love. We provide a safe place for hurting people, a place where grace is always present. Misjudged, desolate, shattered people will flock to our fellowship.

When we learn to love our mate as Christ loves His Bride, we will live a joyful life (John 1:11-12). We totally surrender to God's will for our life and we walk in His ways. This enables us to put one another first, and to serve each other with Agape love.

We do not need to earn God's love or prove that we deserve it. God gives it to everyone as a free gift; so we love our mate with this same type of love, considering his or her needs above our own.

We give God and our mate our whole heart, never wavering from our commitment to one another, even when conflicts arise. This makes us resilient through our misunderstandings and differences of opinions and direction.

We can also write each other frequent love notes via cards, emails, texts and messages. I've known wives who write a love note in lipstick on the bathroom mirror and husbands who have flowers or a live plant with a card delivered to their wife at work.

Making time for one another will insulate our love during negative issues and disagreements. As we pray together for God's will in every situation, He always leads us to an equitable solution that we can both support.

Prayer:
Father God, teach us that if someone wins, someone else has to lose. It is only when we seek Your will together that we both win. Help us to discover the resolution to our issues as we prayerfully work together. When we consider one another's thoughts, feelings and needs, we are much more willing to compromise.

Help us to see that keeping our issues private, rather than airing them out to any willing listener or on social media, is of paramount importance. You make it clear that divorce is not in Your will for us, so help us to stay in love by putting each other's needs first. Give us words of encouragement for one another, and teach us to view our life impartially rather than one-sidedly.

Thought for the Day:
Our attitude and philosophy of life will influence our feelings of love for one another; so keeping a positive attitude will make it easier to see life from our mate's point-of-view. - Philippians 4:8