As we think about marriage today, since it is 'Marriage Monday' this verse comes to my mind. Why? Because in order to cultivate and keep a tender love for my husband I must guard my heart against sin.
When my emotions roar up, as they did this week, and I feel less loving towards my hubby, a blinking red light in my mind should warn me. I can ignore it if I so desire. Yet, I don't want to ignore it because I desire to desire the truth. I have learned to 'fight' the good fight. How easily I can fall into sin and not tell myself the truth!
I keep a copy of one of Jonathan Edwards resolutions in my journal. He wrote: "Resolved, whenever my feelings begin to appear in the least out of order, when I am conscious of the least uneasiness within, or the least irregularity without, I will then subject myself to the strictest examination."
When that alarm goes off, I must examine my heart and repent of any sin. I run to the Cross. This is the way to maintain a tender love for our husband. When we agree with the diagnosis of Scripture as seen in Romans 3:23 , we can also receive the remedy. The forgiveness of Christ becomes ours and the power to change right along with it.
Charles Spurgeon wrote this:
"He who grows in grace remembers that he is but dust, and he therefore does not expect his fellow Christians to be anything more. He overlooks ten thousand of their faults, because he knows his God overlooks twenty thousand in his own case. He does not expect perfection in the creature, and, therefore, he is not disappointed when he does not find it." (Sermon "Ripe Fruit" #945)
I remember my husband is a sinner. BUT I AM TOO ~ my sins are great...who am I to point out the speck in his eye when I have a 'boulder of a log' in my eye? God's truth sets us free. He always tells us the truth ~ that to first take the log out of my eye and then gently attend to the speck in his. Often as I remove the log from my own eye....the speck disappears! Amazing! What great affection I have for the love of my life although I do not always show it. How easily my sin blinds me to my own heart condition.
So my thought today is "Keep watch on your heart ~ for out of the heart flow the issues of life." Proverbs 4:23
Easy? No.
Good? Yes.
Worth it? Always.
Fighting the good fight this week, though not me, but HE...who is faithful...on my behalf ~ Lynette
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