Building Better Love : The Mission of Loving WellSample

Grace, Please!

“Above all, be loving. This ties everything together perfectly.” -Colossians 3:14

I think it’s safe to say that all of us desire genuine and fulfilling love. Maybe you’re enjoying the bliss of being a newlywed, or maybe you have come across some bumps in the road. Either way, I know you desire to keep loving in your marriage. I share that, as well!

I want you to know up front that I am writing to you from my heart – from one wife to another. Consider these next few days to be our conversation over lunch or a cup of coffee. Trust me when I tell you that your desire to love well doesn’t go unseen by the Lord. Your joys aren’t accidental and your tears are not in vain. Everyone’s marriage is different, but cultivating a good marriage has more to do with the living than with the feelings. If there is love, then your marriage is alive and capable of thriving and becoming all that God has purposed for your union to be. With that being said, I want to focus our time on encouraging you to continue making strives to love well and to be loved well, regardless.

Remember, grace creates fertile love which blooms strength within our marriages and with our relationship with the Lord. It’s the grace of God that made a relationship with Jesus possible (Ephesians 2: 8-9) and it's that very grace that continues to echo God's perfect love in every area of our lives! Since grace is so life-changing for our souls, think about what it can do for our marriages! There is always enough grace to go around, no matter where you find yourself in your process of building a loving marriage.

I pray this devotional will encourage and remind you that the Gospel of Christ is applicable for every season, every heart, and every marriage. His eternal love never fails and it’s this love that will propel us to love well. Even when it’s hard, our marriages can still produce great joy when we place it in the hands of Jesus. We can commit to living lives of love while building confidence to love like Jesus, though it may cost our comfort zones or require our repentance. The love Christ has given you is worth it and the process He is taking you through to produce love and grace through you will require more than temporal feelings. This is a spiritual thing! Your marriage is laying down foundations for eternity.

No matter if you are a newlywed or a long-time sojourner in your marriage, my prayer is that we all lean our hearts into knowing the love of our Savior more, peering more deeply into His Word, and allowing His Holy Spirit to transform us into His loving image daily. This is what sets apart a good marriage from a great one. The cornerstone that all truly great marriages are built upon.