Real Love And All That Comes With It

“The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” Jeremiah 31:3

I want to talk about love and all that comes with it. Not feelings, emotions, cards, chocolate, and flowers that go along with Valentine’s Day … but real love that is available for everyone!

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James1:17

It is not just for couples & marriages. It is for EVERYONE. (read: alone yet not alone)

I am thankful that Jesus showed us what real love means. Not only in words, but in actions. “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:18

Books By My Favorite Christian Author

Suffering Is Never for Nothing
Discipline
Keep a Quiet Heart
The Path of Loneliness: Finding Your Way Through the Wilderness to God
Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ’s Control
Be Still My Soul: Reflections on Living the Christian Life

Have you heard the gospel of peace and glad tidings of good things? “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” Romans 10:9-11

Biblical marriage is part of God’s plan for displaying His relationship with the church to others. It is humbling that God saw fit to place me in a marriage for the last 20+ years.

(read: how I married at 17 & survived)

“I was 17 when I married him 20 years ago. I thought I loved him then more than anything else in this world. But, I didn’t really know what love was. I didn’t know all that would test that “love”.

We have lived a lot of life together in the last 20 years. We have been put through the fire. My mom was sick from cancer and died before our 6th anniversary. We had 8 babies in 9 years’ time. We cared for a terminally ill child for over 14 years and are grieving her death together. We have buried two children together. We are caring for another terminally ill child together. We are broken souls, together.

Now, when I say I love him, I don’t mean that I love what he can do for me or how he makes me feel. Instead, I mean that I choose to do hard things with and for him because I care about his physical well-being and the condition of his soul. Love is not a feeling, it’s an action.

However, Joey is my best friend and favorite person. Thanks be to God! And I am thankful for him and who God is shaping him – and us – to be. I know God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3).

We are learning what love means together. We are striving to know God more together. We are healing together. We are laughing together. We are praying together. We are better together. Only by God’s grace and mercy are we standing here, together.”

I constantly fail to be an example of the bride of Christ that I should be. But, I kind of think that is exactly the point: the church can not and will not work its way into heaven but must depend fully on the blood of Jesus Christ and God’s grace.

(read: help for a struggling marriage)

Submitting to the will of our Father is extremely hard in our flesh, but extremely freeing in Christ. Jesus says “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

(read: how to have the best marriage ever)

Rest unto your souls! That is exactly the rest a sinful human needs, for we can all say like the publican “God be merciful to me a sinner.” (Luke 18:13)

We were covered in dirt, but now we are being refined like silver and tried like gold so that we are becoming purer and purer. It is not by our works, but there IS work being done in us and through us because of the Holy Spirit.

Does the silver refine itself? And when it is fully refined does it not reflect the image of the Refiner?

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Romans 8:1

“Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.” 1 John 4:13

God will call us His own and we will say “the LORD is my God!” (Zechariah 13:9) If we are His own, may we live like it! (Galatians 5:16-26)