Loving the Lord Lifts Us to Love Our Spouses
“Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.” Psalm 73:25 (KJV)
For this week’s blog, I am led to direct our conversation toward married couples. If you are newlyweds or approaching your 60th wedding anniversary I believe that this blog will be beneficial to you. For our singles, I am sure that you also will be encouraged with wisdom that will speak to your singleness and service to our Sovereign Lord.
I would like to invite all of you who are married to take a walk down memory lane to when you and your spouse were dating. This was a place and time in your lives when you could not wait to hear the phone ring in order to be enriched by the voice that you hungered to hear all day. When you had an evening date, the hours seemed to move at a snail’s pace and represented a dreadful delay. You see, God had delightfully directed you to an unforgettable evening with the most important person on the planet! The icing on this incredible cake was the realization that you would be marrying God’s gift to you and thereby never experiencing the separation that made your heart sore! You were sure that only marital bliss would be on the list for the rest of your days.
But as believers we have an even more beautiful Beloved! Genuine rapture is realized in our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about it. We are in love with Someone that we cannot physically see or touch!
Consider 1 Peter 1:8: “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (KJV).
Yes, I submit to you that we have ascended to a love affair that has affectionately arrested our hearts. We are so in love that every time we see Him we get cross-eyed. Yes, Jesus the Rock has rocked our world. I believe that the psalmist offers an eloquent explanation of one who is experiencing a love affair with the Lord.
“Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.” Psalm 73:25-28 (KJV)
A passionate love for the Lord is paramount for a husband and wife if they are going to have a marriage that glorifies and elevates the Lord. If you do not love the Lord, it will be impossible to love your spouse as God has intended. As a couple, do you find that you are constantly asking yourself and each other “Where is the love?”
What couples are experiencing daily today reminds me of a song from the 1970’s.
Where is the love
You said was mine all mine
Till the end of time
Was it just a lie
Where is the love
Lyrics from “Where is the Love” by Roberta Flack; featuring Donny Hathaway (1972)
As I mentioned earlier, engaging in an expressive and all-encompassing love affair with the Lord will encourage the same for your marriage. If you have echoed and embraced the attitude: “I fell out of love” or “Love don’t live here anymore,” I encourage you to execute an exercise of examination (individually).
In closing, consider the following questions that will expose your heart issue and call you to repentance.
- Do you think about the Lord often throughout your day?
- Do you talk to Him in your heart and in your mind?
- Is your heart for the Lord apparent to those who know you the best?
- Do you love the Lord even above your family?
- Is your life marked by trusting God or by worrying?
- Is your life characterized by obedience to the Scriptures?
- Is your obedience to the Lord Jesus motivated by joy?
You have a choice: get humble and honest and you will get Heaven’s best. If you stay prideful and dishonest you get Hell’s best.
For the Glory of God,
PBKSR