A Good Marriage - Love Languages

Marriage is about the union of two people - two families of people. It brings them together in a legally binding relationship which God intends to last a lifetime.

Life happens, though; the death of a spouse, or of the marriage, sidetracks our best intentions. Our negative emotions influence whether or not we can forgive each other, or if we harbor anger and resentment.

It is best to investigate right away whenever we feel anger toward our spouse. We cannot allow hurt, anger or bitterness to accumulate in our heart and erect walls between us and those who love us.

These negative emotions prevent unconditional love, appreciation and respect from growing in our marriage. Emotional stress added to the stresses of daily living will encourage the desire in us to escape from our marriage.

Satan will certainly, gladly provide us with the opportunity to destroy what God has joined together. Do not be surprised when controversy, disagreements and arguments erupt in your marriage.

These do not indicate a problem in the relationship; but merely a normal adjustment between two very different people. God puts opposites together so that we can stretch, grow, and learn from one another.

God desires that we appreciate one another's individual strengths, and that we allow them to overcome the weaknesses in each other. No one spouse has all the answers.

It is only as we really listen to one another, consider each other's opinions, feelings and needs - and then compromise our desires that we can find equitable solutions to the issues that will most certainly arise.

Our goal in any argument is never to run each other down, wound with critical words, bring up the past in a hurtful manner or stoop to abusive verbal or physical behavior.

We simply hash out our disagreements in an honest and harmonious manner, striving to find common ground, giving in on matters that are not really important to us, and standing firm about the things which mean the most to us.

Prayer:

Father God, You gave each of us a unique personality, made from genetics, upbringing, personality and learned qualities. Remind us that we all need to receive love in different ways: words of affirmation, physical or emotional attention, acts of service, romantic gifts and gestures, or a conglomeration of these. This special language is all our own and allows us to feel loved and nurtured by our spouse.

Help us to understand that if we withhold these gifts of affection from one another, we are undermining our relationship and sabotaging our marriage - setting our self up for a cold and distant existence. Yet if we shower each other with love, we are ensuring that our marriage will go the distance and last a lifetime.

Thought for the Day:

Everyone has their own unique love language that fulfills them and allows them to feel understood, appreciated and cherished; make it a point to ask your mate what his/her love language is and then give him/her expressions of that love some time during  every single day.

Visit:

http://www.5lovelanguages.com

Manifestation of God

Most of humanity does not know Jesus as the Christ, nor do they care at all about Godly principles. Hypocrisy in the lives of so called Christians exacerbates this problem.

If unbelievers see no distinction in their daily walk with that of a professing Believer, this disillusions them. They want nothing to do with Christ or with us.

We have a problem with our connection to the Vine (John 15:5). We may even have a false hope of Heaven, because we never truly repented or made Jesus the Lord of our life.

If, however, we are grafted into the Vine, their reason for rejecting His truth may be that we are hiding His light within us and they cannot see it (Matthew 5:15-16).

Once we surrender our identity over to the Ruler of the universe, God makes a huge difference in our habits, language, personality and interests.

When we fully submit to God for Him to use as He pleases (Isaiah 29:16), our life takes on the character of Christ. This is when people see us as authentic Christians. We are a manifestation of God on the earth.

We have God’s peace in trouble, His perseverance in trials, His love for our persecutors and His joy during periods of grief.

They see us exhibiting patience in trying times, using self-control when others give in to debauchery, displaying meekness rather than having a haughty attitude, relating to others with kindness and basing our life and decisions on faith in our faithful God.

We lay down our preferences and care about the needs of others over our own agenda, without compromising who we are in Christ.

Others see truth and reality in our lives. We are capable of this behavior, not because we are exemplary human beings, but because of God's Holy Spirit within us (Galatians 5:16:25).

This is when other people want for themselves what we have within us.

Prayer:

Father God, Jesus prayed that no one would snatch us out of Your hand. You are greater than all, and we are perfectly safe in Your everlasting arms (John 10:28-29). Fill us completely full of Your Spirit and keep us as the apple of Your eye (Ephesians 3:16-19; Psalm 17:8).

Draw us close to You and never let us go. Your unfailing love is our priceless treasure and we run to the refuge of the shadow of Your wings (Psalm 36:7). When we draw near to You, and resist Satan's efforts to sidetrack us, he has to flee from Your presence within us.

Thought for the Day:

The Holy Spirit is our source of power; and we can ask Him to manifest Himself in and through us all the days of our life; so that others see Christ in us.

Awesome God

In the midst of all the galaxies in our universe, God singled out the planet earth to inhabit with His people. He will bring New Jerusalem, His 1500 mile cubed city, down out of heaven and dwell with us here for eternity (Revelation 21:2).

This city, paved with streets of gold, shows us that what we value more than anything in this world in which we now live will be common place in the city of God (Revelation 21:21; 1 Corinthians 2:9).

We revel in nature as we see it on earth; yet, God will give us a new heaven and earth which resemble Paradise before Adam and Eve fell into sin. This is something else which we cannot imagine.

Even more awesome than any of this, however, is that God gives His Saints the gift of His divine presence abiding in our life now and forever.

There is no longer any separation between God and humanity, because Jesus bridged the gap by His death and resurrection.

He left the glories of heaven to include us in His inheritance of God's Kingdom.

Yet, we take this illustrious fact for granted, and spending time with God is the least of our priorities. We know He will always be there for us, so we only visit Him when we have a problem we cannot handle on our own.

God is jealous for our time and attention (Exodus 34:14). He created us as His own special people. He calls us out of the world to abstain from the evil desires of sin and to seek only His will and way for our life (1 Peter 2:9-12; Proverbs 3:5-6; Ephesians 2:10).

Daily Bible devotion, Christian fellowship, hearing the Word of God preached and singing the high praises of God all bring us into fellowship with God Himself (Psalm 95:2, 100:4; Romans 8:29).

We walk in His presence continually; and even at night, our spirit communes with the Spirit of God as we sleep (Psalm 16:8). We pour out our heart to Him daily; not only with our needs, but primarily with our praises in both good times and bad (Psalm 62:8).

Prayer:

Father God, in Your presence is fullness of joy and in Your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). There is nothing which we need that You will not provide for us (Matthew 6:33). You have our best interest in Your heart and You love us faithfully. We continually abide in Your love (John 15:9).

Forgive us for foolishly running after the things of this world to improve our station in this fleeting life (James 4:14). We get new homes, cars, clothes, hobbies and expensive toys that take even more of our time away from You.

Yet, You continually call us back to Your presence; to spend more than an hour of devotion, and to abide in You all day and night long. There is nothing worthy of our attention beside You and we desire nothing on earth except Your presence in our life (Psalm 73:23-26).

Thought for the Day:

The Spirit of our awesome God goes with us always and He gives us continual rest for our weary soul. - Exodus 33:14