Last lesson we talked about remembering God's love and the wonderful
benefit it will bring to our marriages. Not only do we find that it has
a healing affect upon us personally and upon all our relationships, we
also find that it sets our thinking straight. Before we knew God's love,
our viewpoint of relationships was distorted because of the sin in our
past. Before we knew God's love, our perspective of how to build an intimate
relationship was warped. Understanding, accepting, and applying God's
love to our lives straightens out our crooked places and greatly improves
our perception. We start to view God, others, and ourselves, as we should.
God's love picks us up, stands us up, straightens us up, and then sends
us off pointed in the right direction! And the blessings continue, as
we'll see today while looking at the next phrase within Song of Solomon
1:4:
Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers:
we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than
wine: the upright love thee.
"THE UPRIGHT LOVE THEE"
We find here that there is a certain quality that belongs to those who
love the Lord. Would you say you love God today, dear lady? Would you
say you are upright? By the way, what do you think that word means? According
to Webster's 1828 dictionary, the definition goes like this:
"Something erect or perpendicular to the plane of the horizon; honesty;
integrity in principle or practice."
Ladies, it is people with upright character that truly love the Lord.
Are you in good standing with your heavenly Father today? Do you see eye
to eye with the Lord on all issues; are you perpendicular with Him? The
reason I ask is because those individuals whose relationship is in upright
standing with the Lord make the most loving spouses! Now you might not
think spiritual issues have an effect upon physical issues, especially
not in the area we've been discussing! Quite frequently we humans believe
we ought to leave God out of certain aspects of our private lives. Naturally,
the world has effectively warped our thinking toward the chambers of intimacy,
the physical relationship shared between husband and wife. We think the
Lord having supremacy in our lives would somehow remove all the romance
in our marriages (a lie of the devil I might add!), so therefore, when
we have sexual problems, we close the door of our bedrooms to God and
try to fix things without His help. People actually think being a Christian
means you have to settle for monotonous sex lives, or no romance at all!
Quite the contrary is true, for when you recognize the worth of the Lord
and esteem Him highly and have a deep love for God, you will naturally
recognize the worth of others, esteem them highly, and have a deep love
for them as well! In other words, those who love the Lord first know best
how to love others.... So, I ask you again, do you really love God today??
Deuteronomy 13:3
....for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Through God, the ability to truly love is added to our lives. We must
first learn to love the Lord and find intimacy with Him before we can
ever suppose to effectively love one another as husband and wife. Though
we all make mistakes, they should make us more modest and attentive, prompting
us to build right thinking and right living into our future. Amending
the vertical with our heavenly Father will aid in amending the horizontal
with our spouses! Jesus himself teaches us this truth in John chapter
21 in verses 15-17. Let's turn there and see what He taught Peter who,
like us, had a past filled with poor decisions....
So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest
that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again
the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him,
Yea, Lord; thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. He
saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him
the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest
all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed
my sheep.
We are all guilty of denying the Lord in our lives as Peter had done,
amen? Yet, the key issue for Peter is the key issue for us, and that is
our love for the Lord! Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him "more than these".
What do you think Jesus meant by that? Did He mean, do you love God more
than your spouse, your children, your home, your time, your plans etc.?
Perhaps Jesus was asking Peter if he loved Him more than the other disciples
did since he had a tendency to brag a bit about his devotion. That reminds
me, some of us wives think we love the Lord more than our husbands do,
don't we? Come on; be honest! Like Peter, we tend to brag a bit about
our loyalty to God in our own subtle ways within our homes. We unwisely
compare the depth of our Christianity against our spouse. We drop hints
around our husbands how we faithfully read our Bibles each day and then
conveniently share how "powerfully" God spoke to us in His Word, hoping
that it will convict them of our holiness and their need for it! We try
in subtle ways to convince our mates that we love God more than they do,
silently manipulating them to "catch up" with us spiritually. We talk
of how we long to serve the Lord, of how we'd willingly leave our mothers
and Wal-Mart to go to a foreign field, trying to prove that they are lacking
in love for lost souls. We plunge into every church activity that comes
up, thereby also taking the opportunity to convince church family that
it is not our husbands that love the Lord most in our homes, but us! Yes,
we women are good at slyly strutting our "deep love" for God. Like Peter,
we've got ourselves pretty convinced that we are most devoted to Jesus…
Matthew 26:33
Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because
of thee, yet will I never be offended.
The question today is, is GOD convinced that you love Him?? Was God convinced
that Peter loved Him? I'm not so sure He was, for Jesus posed the question
to Peter three times! In response to Jesus probing question, Peter was
getting a bit frustrated because he was quite confident of his love for
God - just as we wives are certain of our affection for Him. However,
Jesus inquiry exposed the problem Peter had. Notice Jesus instructions
- "Feed my lambs.... Feed my sheep". Ladies, Jesus was trying to show
Peter exactly what He is trying to show you and I! We boast of our love
for the Lord yet fail in devotion to our husbands. If you are going to
profess a more affectionate attachment to Christ, then you better be prepared
to verify it. You see, ladies, a love for God is more than declared with
our lips, it is demonstrated in our lives! If we consider ourselves so
upright, then we would prove the sincerity of our love for God by serving
Him in an active way. How? By feeding His lambs and His sheep.... You
see, love moves toward others. Nurturing your husband and children are
two of the best ways you could ever show how much you love God! The way
we love God is to exclusively love those put in our care - cultivate them,
be predisposed to meeting their individual needs, encourage each one,
protect them, guide them, stay close to them. It's always easier to speak
your love but much harder to SHOW your love, isn't it? We say we love
God, but how often do our actions deny what our lips are saying and reveal
the true condition of our hearts, that they are not close to the Lord
at all….
Matthew 15:8
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with
their lips; but their heart is far from me.
I'll ask you again - do you sincerely love God? Is your heart truly unified
with His, or could it be you've only honored Him with your lips all this
time? Jesus says, if you love Me, then show it, extend that love you say
exists within you toward my lambs and my sheep. Put it to trial; prove
you love me by actively loving others! Sincerely loving God should make
you a sincere lover of people, beginning with an honest, open demonstration
right in your own home! Ladies, the sincerity of our love to God must
be brought to the test, and with earnest prayer we should ask the One
who searches all our hearts to examine and prove us, whether we these
things are so with us or not. If we do not love the good Shepherd first,
then how can we hope to be qualified to adequately feed His dear sheep
and lambs?? God said in His Word that He loved us, but He also demonstrated
that love on the cross, amen? He passed the test of His love and did the
hardest thing ever! Will you?? God's love was an active, sacrificial,
reconciling love. Seeking nothing in return, He gave of himself so that
others could have....
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Love first can be expressed and learned as giving, for that is the core
of love as God has shown us. The spirit of giving brings about a new relationship
and provides an atmosphere of reconciliation in which true love may grow
and thrive in marriage. Take a moment to reflect, dear lady.... How are
you demonstrating your love for God, for your family, for your spouse?
Is it love when you make your husband feel inadequate by dropping hints
all over the place of his insufficiency and your marvelous achievements?
Is it love when you debate over every decision your husband tries to make?
Is it love when you argue with him in front of your children? Is it love
when you neglect the things that mean the most to him because of your
bitterness toward him? Is it love when you withdraw because he wounded
you? Does it make sense that one person supposedly devoted to another
could express love yet also furnish an uncooperative spirit at the same
time? Ladies, an upright love for God provides husbands and wives with
the grace we need in order to actively and consistently show warm, personal,
and spontaneous care for one another....
Ephesians 6:24
Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.
Yes, the upright love the Lord, and we learned earlier that honesty exists
within that uprightness. Is there honesty in your love for God, dear lady?
Is your heart involved, or are you faking your love for Him? Ladies, if
we love the Lord in sincerity, we won't be fakes, amen? As the Bible states
above, there is grace for those who love Jesus in sincerity and this continual
supply of grace will saturate our will and our emotions. Hence, we won't
just be going through the motions; our hearts will be present in every
action! Is there honesty in your love for your husband, dear wife? Is
there mutual, active participation on your part as his lover; are you
moving toward him with desire? With a proper love for God positioned in
our hearts first, we won't ever have to fake our love for our husbands!
We won't be guilty of just mouthing the words, "I love you, honey." without
our hearts behind them. Honest love of God will result in honest love
of man.
Matthew 22:37
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
How many of you ladies, during times of intimacy with your husbands, have
found that your heart, soul and mind are far from the scene of your physical
union, yet you have pretended otherwise? Has your love life been nothing
more than an empty ritual? You are someone who is empty of uprightness
of heart before the Lord and void of genuineness. As with Peter, it is
a test our love must be put to! God challenged him to search his heart
for sincerity, and we would do well to accept the same challenge today.
Why settle for imitation love when you can have the real thing?? No matter
what the world may think, the marriage bed truly does profit through having
an upright relationship with God!
Lovest thou Him?
God Bless,
Pam
Isaiah 60:1&2
Copyright 2000 Pamela A. Iannello
