What is your reason for loving your spouse? Certainly our answers would be different from each other. But there s also a certainty that our love is dependent on the motivations that we get from our husbands and wives. We love as much as we receive and when we don't, love takes a whole new different meaning. That is because our love is rooted in the ideas of the world, are driven by benefit and gains and provoked further by media and Hollywood. Love depended on what we receive and what we give. Before Christ, my perspective of love was so selfish and was compounded by temporal wants and desires. I withheld love when I felt aggrieved. I withheld respect when I felt wronged and demanded equal love, sometimes even more than I was willing to give. When I had Jesus in my life, His love became a benchmark in loving my husband. Knowing the very little motivation I gave to Jesus during my very sinful states and still receiving such profound, unprecedented and unconditional love, forgiveness and sacrifice--I knew that loving my husband the same way was the least I can do for Him. Jesus set me apart, to sanctify me and part of that sanctification process was giving my husband motivations to love me and loving him even with very little motivation. That is selfless love here on earth.
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Lord, thank you for giving me so much more than I ever deserved. You loved me at my meanest, the obnoxious and loathsome version of me, when I was too wretched to be loved, too despicable to deserve an ounce of grace from You. Your love had no ifs, ands or buts, had no strings attached and so pure. But my ability to love was dependent on certain conditions. I had to be motivated to love back, and the motivations I demanded had to be to my advantage. My love was limited to a certain breaking point, that when reached, caused me to love less and worse, bail out. But because Your love knows no bounds, absolute and is patient, You forgave and persistently taught me to love like You. You were certain that I would learn to love despite little or no motivation just as You loved me. I realized that You -- my omni-perfect God, my source and my supply of love -- are using an imperfect person like me to show and give the same blessing of unconditional love to another. I offer my love to You Lord and I acknowledge that You alone are the only motivation I will ever need when all else fail, convict me to commit the best love I possibly can to my spouse, the love that has You in focus. Amen.
Render service with a good attitude, as to the Lord and not to men. -- Ephesians 6:7
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Lord, thank you for giving me so much more than I ever deserved. You loved me at my meanest, the obnoxious and loathsome version of me, when I was too wretched to be loved, too despicable to deserve an ounce of grace from You. Your love had no ifs, ands or buts, had no strings attached and so pure. But my ability to love was dependent on certain conditions. I had to be motivated to love back, and the motivations I demanded had to be to my advantage. My love was limited to a certain breaking point, that when reached, caused me to love less and worse, bail out. But because Your love knows no bounds, absolute and is patient, You forgave and persistently taught me to love like You. You were certain that I would learn to love despite little or no motivation just as You loved me. I realized that You -- my omni-perfect God, my source and my supply of love -- are using an imperfect person like me to show and give the same blessing of unconditional love to another. I offer my love to You Lord and I acknowledge that You alone are the only motivation I will ever need when all else fail, convict me to commit the best love I possibly can to my spouse, the love that has You in focus. Amen.
Render service with a good attitude, as to the Lord and not to men. -- Ephesians 6:7