I don't really have some catchy way to start this post so I'll jump right into the meat of it. God has been teaching me a ton this summer. One of the overarching themes has been learning to abide in Him and find total fulfillment and satisfaction only in Jesus Christ and His will for my life. According to Webster's, abide means to "remain stable" and to "endure without yielding".
One of the biggest struggles for me is when we talk about love. In the past, it has been very hard for me to love someone without taking my eyes off Jesus; to cease abiding in Him as I put my attention on someone else. The point I'm making applies to every kind of love you can have (familial, platonic, romantic...) but for now I'm specifically talking about the romantic type.
In the past, when I've allowed myself to care for someone, things started to revolve around them. They became the object of far too much time and attention. Focus was lost and too much emphasis was placed on them. This is not the way that things should be. I have learned, through a bunch of scripture and some old epiphanies / revelations in the past week or so, that I've had it all mixed up in the past.
We are supposed to love Jesus Christ first and foremost. All other loves flow from our love for Him. He is the fountain in which all other affections find their source. I've been seeking God's will wholeheartedly for a while now. I'd even venture to say that I've been devoted to Him (I hesitate to use such a strong word because I fully know the limitations and faults of my selfish heart). But even in all the days I spent at Pine Cove and since then back in Nac, I couldn't truthfully say that I allowed Jesus to be source of all my love.
I'm at a point in life now where one of the biggest, most likely the biggest, things I'm working on is preparing to be a Godly man and, much more so, a Godly husband. Paul set the bar extremely high for the husband who wants to love as he should, "...love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her..." - Eph. 5:25. It would be a daunting and virtually impossible task if we were to somehow produce a genuinely Christ-like love in and of ourselves. But, if we place all our attention on Jesus and allow Him to work in our lives, we will soon find that love residing in our hearts.
It is not our primary responsibility to worry about loving our wife the right way. However, it's definitely our primary responsibility to love Jesus with all that we have and devote ourselves to His service and plan for our lives. If we are fully submitted to Him, the love that we are called to show will flow naturally from the pure love and spiritual union we enjoy with Jesus.
The same can be said for taking the love we have for Jesus and spreading it out into a lost and dying world. That will be the topic of a post coming soon to a theater (or blog) near you.
I take great peace in knowing that the love I want to show to my future wife, the love that she will crave (a 1 Cor. 13 kind of love), will come straight from Jesus Himself. I will merely be a conduit of Christ's pure and holy love straight into the heart of my wife. Notice, I said a conduit, not the conduit. I am definitely not saying that "husband" replaces "Savior and Almighty God". This is surely not the answer and it was never meant to be. Moving on...
Once again, the answer is Jesus. He is all we need. Devote yourself wholeheartedly to knowing Him more deeply and loving Him more passionately. You'll see a difference in the way you love people. I spoke about romantic love in this post but the same goes for the friends and family in your life. As long as Jesus stays #1 in your heart, you'll be able to see things from a proper perspective. You'll be able to bless, encourage and strengthen those around you like never before.
"After all this...3 things remain. Faith, hope and love. The greatest of these is love." - 1 Cor. 13:13
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