 |
| photo credit: Carter Photography Mount Pleasant Texas |
This past summer my husband and I celebrated a decade
of marriage. Now, that may be small potatoes compared to many of you
reading this, but a decade felt like a big deal…. something worth celebrating!
So we did. We celebrated by remembering. Everything
from our first fight as a married couple was over toilet paper. We couldn’t
agree on where to squeeze the toothpaste tube and how to fold towels (you know,
the important stuff)…to some of our greatest adventures…like as newlyweds God
moved us 1500 miles away from everyone and everything we knew and
loved to a place where it snows more often then not…when
strangers became family…we learned how to navigate blizzards, icy roads,
graduate school and full time ministry…when we walked through each other’s tender
places of insecurity, addiction, mental illness and our desperate need for the
approval of others…and even our broken places of bitterness, resentment, shame,
loneliness, and loss…when God taught us to bring those things to the cross
and give each other the best gift two people can give one another, forgiveness
and grace. And, of course, we celebrated the best product of our
marriage…our four beautiful children.
All of it a record of God’s faithfulness to us on our
journey. We all know relationships are hard and they require work and
intentionality. I love that our God is relational. That He gives us earthly
relationships to give us a tiny glimpse into His perfect, eternal,
unconditional love for us.
Just think about that for a moment…the God of the
universe, the creator of all things loves you… desires
you… is pursing you!
We see how marriage, in particular, parallels
perfectly with the kind of relationship the LORD longs to have with us… by
looking at the first married couple, Adam and Eve. In Genesis, after God
created Adam He said, “it is not good for man to be alone.” Aren’t you so
thankful for that truth? That we can know and trust in the
promises of God’s Word that He is always with us (Ps 118:6), He is always for
us (Romans 8:31), He will never abandon or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
“It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you;
He will not leave you nor forsake you.
(Deuteronomy 31:8)
In fact, His very name is Emmanuel, which means God
is with us (Matthew 1:23). What hope and peace
we gain by knowing that no matter what mountain we face or circumstances that
come our way He is with us!
So from the very side of Adam, God created a helper…a
woman, his wife, Eve. As children of God we too have a Helper.
“Behold God is my HELPER;
the Lord is the upholder of my life.”
(Psalm 54:4)
“So we can say with confidence,
“the Lord is my HELPER, so I will not fear…
(Hebrews 13:6)
“God is our refuge and strength,
always ready to HELP in times of trouble.
(Psalm 46:1)
If that wasn’t already good, God showed me something
really profound. What separates marriage from any other relationship is intimacy.
There is nothing on earth more sacred than the intimacy shared between a
husband and his wife. And that’s what God desires with us… intimacy.
In John 21, after Jesus’ death and resurrection
before ascending into Heaven, He speaks with His disciples and to Peter He
asks, in verse 15, “Simon son of John, do you love me more that these? “Yes,
Lord,” Peter replies, “you know I love you.” Three times in all Jesus asks the
same question. In the original Greek language, Jesus’ use of the word love
is different than Peters. In essence, Jesus is asking Peter, “Do you love me
deeply? Are you fond of me? Are you content with me and me alone? Peter
replies, “Yes, Lord, I love you… as a friend. I’m familiar with you. I think
kindly of you.” You see, God wants true, authentic, intimacy with
us. He showed me why intimacy with Him is so important.
As Will and I looked through our wedding album on our
anniversary, remembering that day of celebration and commitment, I was taken
back by the image of a young couple… starting a new life together, beginning a
new journey… making a covenant to each other and to God in front of everyone we
love and yet we had no idea what we were really saying yes to. Sometimes being
naïve is a blessing. In fact, if God had revealed to us our journey (even
to this point), I’m not sure either one of us would of shown up that day to say
“I do”. But, of course, because of His perfect sovereignty and gentle provision
He didn’t. And isn’t that true about our personal relationship with the Lord?
When each of us, as it says in Romans 10:9, “confess with our mouth that Jesus
is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead” we entered
into a covenant relationship with God. Honestly, there have been times in
my marriage when I thought, “I did not sign up for this.” But actually I did
because I made a promise to my husband and to God. And the same has been true about
my personal relationship with the Lord. There have been seasons in my life when
I’ve been “perplexed, hard pressed on every side (NLT), afflicted in every way
(ESV). When I’ve said to God, “this is too much! This is too hard!” I’ve
wanted to wave the white flag and walk away, but I made a promise
to God.
The world’s view of commitment is drastically
different than Gods. Today, we view commitment much like trying on clothes in
the dressing room at a department store. We’re only willing to commit if
there’s a “return policy”. So we think, “sure I’ll try it on for a while, see
if it fits into the lifestyle I desire. See if it’s comfortable and the
popular thing. But as soon as it becomes uncomfortable (which it will), confrontational,
offensive, unpopular and no longer fits into our life style, we are ready and
willing to exchange it for something or someone more suitable for our happiness
and convenience.
What a life from the enemy!!! God never goes “out of style”. By that I mean, God
and His Word is always relevant to the times…
consistent
reliable
trustworthy
That’s why intimacy with God is so important because
when we know Him intimately then (and only then) can we truly trust Him.
And it’s that trust that gives us the strength to get
through the hard, the difficult, the messy and even the ugly circumstances we
endure in life.
So,
can we say to the Lord,
“I’m
committed to you...
For
rich or for poor
For
better or for worse
In
sickness and in health
I
will love and cherish you all the days of my life?”
And
here’s the beautiful exception to those earthly traditional vows,
with God it’s not
“until death do us part”, but it’s for eternity!
Marriage is hard.
Relationships are hard. Life is really hard! But God uses all of
it to transform us. Transformation is rarely easy and usually painful but
it produces something really beautiful. When we surrender to the
redemptive work God is doing in our life and trust Him, we have
the opportunity to reflect to the world the greatest love story… Jesus.
I wanted to end by sharing
something personal. This is a picture of my husband on our wedding day, next to
the man who mentored him and married us. But that’s not why I love this picture
so much. I love it because it’s a beautiful foreshadowing we celebrate as
children of God. By beloved sisters, we are the bride of Christ and our wedding
day is approaching! Scripture is clear that is He coming again to take us to
Himself. We will be ushered into the presence God. Wherever He is we will also
be for eternity. What joy! So we wait with great anticipation for
the day when we will be united with our Bridegroom. Until then, will we remain faithful
and trust Him? And can we say with all the redeemed of
the Lord, “Come, Lord Jesus, Come!
No comments:
Post a Comment