Wow, this really hits home with me today! What a word! I hope this encourages you all as much as it did me! Scroggymommy5 aka Theresa
We Trust Because He Loves
If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is. 2 Timothy 2:13 (NLT)
Shortly after I decided to continue honoring my dead marriage and continue trusting in God’s restorative powers, I felt extremely convicted to share this decision (as well as my faith and hope in God) with my family and friends. It was definitely not something I wanted to do, but since the conviction just wouldn’t leave me alone, I eventually decided to do so. I spent many a terrified afternoon sharing and explaining my position and my faith in God with both Christians and non-believers…and some understood better than others. If nothing else, it ‘forced’ me to share a faith that I’d hidden under a bushel for many years with many people who were, up to that point, unaware of it.
At one point, a question was raised that I couldn’t answer, and it troubled me greatly. The suggestion was made that continuing to honor my marriage even after it was legally over, might be legalistic, or that it could be a decision born out of principle and not of God. In other words, that I might be honoring my marriage simply to stay true to my word, and not because God actually required or expected me to.
I knew in my heart that this was not the case, but couldn’t articulate exactly why for some time. But when the answer did eventually come, mid-prayer, I was so overwhelmed that I couldn’t even speak….I just sat on my bedroom floor and wept.
God has promised us many things. He promises to hear our prayers. He’s promised salvation and eternal life to those who trust their lives to Jesus. He’s promised to forgive our sins, no matter what they are. He promises to accept sinners into His Kingdom just as they are, as long as they repent. But why do we believe these promises? Why do we take Him at His Word?
We believe for the same reason that we believe promises made to us by those who love us. If your brother promises to show up at the hospital for your surgery, you believe he’ll be there…because that promise is backed by something; his love for you. You aren’t trusting in a promise made by your brother; you’re trusting in the love he has for you, the love that ensures he’ll keep his promise.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:9-10
So it is with God. God is not just the source of love; He IS love. The love He has for His creation is part of who He is; an integral part of His character. It is because of that love that He sent his Son to die for our sins, and it is that same love that guarantees all of the promises He made us. Why? Because His promises to us are made out of love, which is part of who God is…and He cannot deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13).
So we trust not in God’s promises, but in His love that prompted them in the first place and thereby assures us that they and the truth are one and the same. We trust because He loves.
And as we strive to be more like Him, so it must be with us. God joined you and your spouse together; the two of you together, as a unit, are the work of His hands. God granted you a helper, a partner, and commanded that you love and care for them. That love you have for your spouse is so much more than just an emotion or feeling; it is part of who you are, an integral part of yourself that was put there by God.
You are not simply honoring a promise made during a wedding ceremony. You are staying true to the love that prompted your promises in the first place and continues to back them now…because that love has become, as God intended, part of who you are, and you must stay true to your character just as God stays true to His. And the more forgiving, the more hopeful, the more long-suffering your love can be, the closer it will be to the perfect love He shows to us.
In Ezekiel 16, God compares the inhabitants of Jerusalem to an unfaithful wife, and spends no fewer than 52 straight verses detailing her sins and debauchery. Jerusalem is detestable, beyond earthly help, completely sold out to the enemy, and has been totally and utterly unfaithful to her Husband. But their broken promises could not break God’s.
“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant. Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.’†Ezekiel 16:59-60
I cannot reconcile loving my wife as Christ loves the church with dishonoring my promises to her just because she has broken hers to me. Giving up on someone’s capacity to change is giving up on God’s ability to change them…and no matter what your spouse has done and no matter how much they have hurt you, they are a cause worth fighting for.
Even if the only fighting you can do is on your knees.
Trusting in California,
Benjamin
Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.
We Trust Because He Loves
If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is. 2 Timothy 2:13 (NLT)
Shortly after I decided to continue honoring my dead marriage and continue trusting in God’s restorative powers, I felt extremely convicted to share this decision (as well as my faith and hope in God) with my family and friends. It was definitely not something I wanted to do, but since the conviction just wouldn’t leave me alone, I eventually decided to do so. I spent many a terrified afternoon sharing and explaining my position and my faith in God with both Christians and non-believers…and some understood better than others. If nothing else, it ‘forced’ me to share a faith that I’d hidden under a bushel for many years with many people who were, up to that point, unaware of it.
At one point, a question was raised that I couldn’t answer, and it troubled me greatly. The suggestion was made that continuing to honor my marriage even after it was legally over, might be legalistic, or that it could be a decision born out of principle and not of God. In other words, that I might be honoring my marriage simply to stay true to my word, and not because God actually required or expected me to.
I knew in my heart that this was not the case, but couldn’t articulate exactly why for some time. But when the answer did eventually come, mid-prayer, I was so overwhelmed that I couldn’t even speak….I just sat on my bedroom floor and wept.
God has promised us many things. He promises to hear our prayers. He’s promised salvation and eternal life to those who trust their lives to Jesus. He’s promised to forgive our sins, no matter what they are. He promises to accept sinners into His Kingdom just as they are, as long as they repent. But why do we believe these promises? Why do we take Him at His Word?
We believe for the same reason that we believe promises made to us by those who love us. If your brother promises to show up at the hospital for your surgery, you believe he’ll be there…because that promise is backed by something; his love for you. You aren’t trusting in a promise made by your brother; you’re trusting in the love he has for you, the love that ensures he’ll keep his promise.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:9-10
So it is with God. God is not just the source of love; He IS love. The love He has for His creation is part of who He is; an integral part of His character. It is because of that love that He sent his Son to die for our sins, and it is that same love that guarantees all of the promises He made us. Why? Because His promises to us are made out of love, which is part of who God is…and He cannot deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13).
So we trust not in God’s promises, but in His love that prompted them in the first place and thereby assures us that they and the truth are one and the same. We trust because He loves.
And as we strive to be more like Him, so it must be with us. God joined you and your spouse together; the two of you together, as a unit, are the work of His hands. God granted you a helper, a partner, and commanded that you love and care for them. That love you have for your spouse is so much more than just an emotion or feeling; it is part of who you are, an integral part of yourself that was put there by God.
You are not simply honoring a promise made during a wedding ceremony. You are staying true to the love that prompted your promises in the first place and continues to back them now…because that love has become, as God intended, part of who you are, and you must stay true to your character just as God stays true to His. And the more forgiving, the more hopeful, the more long-suffering your love can be, the closer it will be to the perfect love He shows to us.
In Ezekiel 16, God compares the inhabitants of Jerusalem to an unfaithful wife, and spends no fewer than 52 straight verses detailing her sins and debauchery. Jerusalem is detestable, beyond earthly help, completely sold out to the enemy, and has been totally and utterly unfaithful to her Husband. But their broken promises could not break God’s.
“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant. Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.’†Ezekiel 16:59-60
I cannot reconcile loving my wife as Christ loves the church with dishonoring my promises to her just because she has broken hers to me. Giving up on someone’s capacity to change is giving up on God’s ability to change them…and no matter what your spouse has done and no matter how much they have hurt you, they are a cause worth fighting for.
Even if the only fighting you can do is on your knees.
Trusting in California,
Benjamin
Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.
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