Face To FaithSample

If you could boil your life down to one thing, what would it be? What is the repeated, prolonged echo that fills your life?

My hope for you today, because this is the will of God, is that this one thing in your life is love. Strip everything else away, all other motivations, all other callings, all other attitudes, and I hope that we would find love in each one of us today.

You might wonder why love is so important. Well, it’s because everything we do, no matter how wonderful or good, is worthless if it doesn’t come from love in our hearts.

That’s quite a challenge for us as we approach the topic of marriage, isn’t it? I mean, look at an average day and tell me, is everything you do for even one day toward your spouse motivated by love?

“Well, what does that look like, Bob?” I can tell you, because 1 Corinthians 13 tells us. I encourage you to read it in full, but let me boil it down by saying this—the opposite of love is not hate; the opposite of love is selfishness.

Love is a choice we make to pursue another person, to seek their benefit above our own. This choice requires us to shape our actions and guard our heart with our spouse in mind, considering them to be of more consequence than ourselves.

Chances are good, however, that this has not always been our experience, either with our spouses or with other people in our lives. All of us come into our marriages as damaged goods, so to speak, to one degree or another. This is why it is vital for us to remember one of love’s most important keys—forgiveness.

Forgiveness doesn’t mean that what’s happened in the past was right or that those who have hurt us are off the hook, but it does mean it’s out of your heart. It releases us from the past so that we can freely enter a good future.

What future is that, you ask? Isaiah 60:1,7 tells us, “Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you...and I will glorify the house of My glory.”

Your future and the future of your marriage is that God wants to glorify you and make you the example marriage on your block, so that everyone will wonder what you have figured out that they need.

All this will happen, but only when we make our lives about love. What is your life about today?

Prayer
Lord Jesus,
You are the God of love and I am Your child. I choose to forgive those who have hurt me and ask that You would heal my heart so that I can freely love as You created me to do.
Amen