Ephesians 5:22-33 “Wives, submit
to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the
wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the
body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the
wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands,
love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for
her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of
water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should
be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as
their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever
hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the
Lord does the church. For we are members of His
body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall
leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall
become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning
Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular
so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that
she respects her husband.”
Continuing Pastor Kyle’s
message on making the picture the reality, he reminds us that our relationships
are not on auto-pilot and there are critical elements that must be maintained
by focused attention and well thought out hard work. The same is true in our
relationship with God. Our concerted effort allows us to grow and mature in our
relationship with our Heavenly Father. Problems arise when we do not work on
and maintain our relationships because they are either growing or dying; there
is no third direction. It may seem the opposite, but the truth is that it is
more trouble to leave a relationship than to improve it because the reality in
the consequences.
Jesus said in Mark
10:6-9 “But from the
beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this
reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his
wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no
longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not
man separate.” To pull two objects apart is different than pulling apart a
single object (one flesh); something is going to be severely damaged. But, God
has grace.
We must learn to find and
fill our needs in the Lord. Do we go to the Lord to have our needs met first? James
4:2-3 says, “You desire and
do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and
quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not
receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” What
change of perspective might we have if we look, not to others but, to the Lord
with requested aligned with His Will for our life? The Lord says that we have
the fleshly tendency to look at “selfish” passions and unrealistic expectations
of getting them met that negatively drives us. Galatians 5:22-23 tell us
that the love, joy, and peace that we desire and seek is the fruit of the Holy
Spirit in us, and they are always accompanied by patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Hurt people, hurt people.
When arrows of discontent are shot, people duck. We like to act like we get
hurt and don’t hurt others that we are in relationship with, but we do. Reality
is that people want to be healed. People want to be listened to. Listening to
hurting people is true hard, but it’s the only way to help them feel better. It
takes faith to listen and be a “good” listener. Let them have the floor and be
heard until they are done. They just need
to vent their feelings and frustrations. Remember the good is the goal and work
to make the ideal the real. Be intentional in your relationships to make the
picture the reality because, first and foremost, we have the picture of God sending
His Son to die on the Cross for our sins as reality.
In Christ, Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment