We are really good at falling in love. But what we see reflected in the divorce rate is that we're really bad at staying in love. We know how to be happy getting married; but we aren't really good at being happily married. What is the missing link?
We tend to go from "I love you so much, how can I serve you?" to "If you loved me, then you would do this for me. Our focus becomes self centered on ME, ME, ME, instead of YOU, YOU, YOU, and we become takers and not givers.
Luke 6: 38 says, "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Marriage takes a lot of energy. It takes energy to listen. It takes energy to resolve disagreements. It takes energy to put our spouses needs ahead of our own. It takes energy to raise kids. Because we are tired, we think we can neglect our marriages and stay in love. (How is that working for you?)
It is much easier to medicate the symptoms of our marriage issues then treating the root causes. On the surface, we work on communicating better, listening to sermons on marriage, reading books on marriage helps and we try to wipe away all that is visibly wrong on the outside, but fail to go deeper into the heart of the relationship. We do the same thing in our relationship with the Lord. So often we would rather have God medicate the pain in our hearts than do what it takes to bring complete healing to us. We go to church, sing the songs, pray the prayers, give our tithe, and yet we change very little. We tend to really work hard to improve our marriages by improving our behavior, but find out that these changes are temporal and don't last.
Zechariah 4:6 - ...Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord.
God doesn't want to improve our marriage; he wants to transform it.
God doesn't want to modify our behavior, He wants to change our heart.
The GOS-PILL is the medication that will change our heart from the inside out and prosper our soul! Unless we allow the word of God to work in us and change the way we think, then we are subject to falling into the same trap as every other marriage.
We can choose today to rekindle our first love, first with the Lord Jesus Christ and secondly with our spouses by getting our mind off of ourselves and loving and serving God and our spouses.
