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
