Don't Grow Cold!

"Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved." -Matthew 24:12&13

My husband has been gone a lot at work preparing for a big yearly deadline.  I enjoyed the time off finding other things to do, but I missed him too.  

When life got back to normal, we went on a couple dates to readjust.  “I’m just getting used to you again,” I said.  It was so interesting to me how easy it was to 'grow cold' toward him during our time apart!  We share a common love language - quality time.  It was because we had not nurtured this love language that we felt far away from one another.  I thought about how this relates to our relationship with our Heavenly Father.    

When life gets busy, it’s so easy to begin feeling far away from God.  It’s easy to neglect or forget to put fuel into our heart’s “boiler” so that we remain on fire for Him.  Sometimes offense or hurts get in the way.  But, we need to be mindful of the dangers of being lukewarm or cold:  “...because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”  (Rev 3:16) We definitely don’t want to be found lukewarm, or with our lamps out of oil (Matthew 25:1-13).  

In marriage, it’s not an option to be “kind of” in love with someone, although we may not feel ridiculously in love all the time.  It’s not an option to set yourself up to be looking for someone else while you’re married!  Likewise, as Christians, it’s not good for us to set ourselves up for a passionless relationship with God. We need to make sure we are hot, on fire with the love of Jesus!

Can you say that you are on fire with the love of Jesus?  If you can’t say that you are, switch things up to kindle that fire again. Worshipping to your favorite worship music, praying until you feel God near, or hanging out with people who love God too can help.  Some people re-connect best with God through experiencing His creation, in nature.  God loves us so much, He wants us to be in His presence, on fire for Him, all the time. 

Are you impassioned with the love of Christ today?

Love & Respect

“However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” -Ephesians 5:33

Have you ever heard the phrases “men need respect”, and “women need love”?  I have to admit this idea was branded into my brain as a result of some amazing marriage coaching after my husband and I were engaged.  But it wasn’t until recently that these words jumped out at me as I was reading scripture –and how true they are!

We are all wired so differently – men and women, young and old, with different likes and dislikes, different desires and different motivations.  How could we best motivate and encourage each other if we knew what made the other person tick?

In the short amount of time I’ve been married, I’ve that what motivates me is different than what motivates my other half.  His love languages are different then mine.  In business and ministry, the same is true!  Some may be motivated by challenge, others, serving others.  Still, some are motivated by “getting it right”, and still others are motivated by the fun of it all.  But, at the end of the day, we do have two things in common – we need to feel loved, and we need to feel respected for what we bring to the table.

The picture of marriage and how we are to treat one another in the New Testament is quite different from some of the cultural expectations we’ve had about relationships.  Our culture says, “Serve me!” when we are called to serve.  (Matt 20:28) Some believe marriage is to “be served” when Christ said, “lay down your life for your bride.” (Eph 5:25) We think all our problems will end when someone comes into our lives to fix them for us.  Instead, it reveals our greatest inadequacies in being more like Christ, but the best way we can grow into becoming more like Him.

In all our relationships, love and respect are key.  How can you love and respect those you serve today?