Christ Centered Relationships

"Treat her well Janny put no one before her! True love only comes once and you wont know till you lose it!"

This is a small segment of a comment that was left on one of my friend's Facebook Wall.  I don't mean to violate any privacy or anything but after reading this it really got me thinking.  "...put no one before her." This is the part that really stuck out to me, and I feel like it's something that's not addressed very often.  

I just finished watching "Christ Centered Relationships" which is a service that Francis Chan did with his wife.  So don't think that all of what I'm about to say is completely from my own mind, I want to give credit to their Biblical wisdom and hopefully display that wisdom to others. I noticed that in our culture nowadays the popular mind set is to put your wife or husband, girlfriend or boyfriend at the forefront of your life. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with being committed to someone or loving someone, but let's think about it a bit.  God instituted this thing called marriage, right? And he had a divine plan for what it is and what it can bring.  So what does that mean to you? Now I'm not claiming to know anything about marriage because I'm not married haha, I'm just a dude looking for answers and sorting out the lies from truth about what it means to have a marriage that God designed us to have.

Many of us, including me, do think, or have thought at some point that marriage is the pinnacle of happiness on this earth.  That God has blessed us with this ability to love someone so dearly, and I agree that He has.  But is that what we are to be completely devoted to in marriage? Obviously, as Christians, our lives should be completely surrendered to God.  That's one of the most basic teachings of the Bible, but I feel like when I look at some marriages it seems like people forget that once they tie the knot.  What I mean is that our source of joy and happiness should not come from our partner, they don't give us life so we shouldn't have to seek life from them.  God gives us life, so love God and serve His purposes. Then a loving and happy marriage is just one of the counterparts that can come. Marriage isn't eternal, that was one of the things from the video that kind of struck me hard when I realized it.

"Jesus answered them, 'you are deceived, because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.  For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven.'" Matthew 22:29-30

I know that may sound harsh but let's really evaluate this. For me, this is immensely challenging because I hope to one day be married and have a family, but am I doing it to satisfy myself or do I truly believe that it's going to help me to better glorify my Maker? I'm not even married and it's making me think this much so I can't even imagine what it would be like to be married and have all of these thoughts rushing into my head, and my heart is with those of you that end up doing that.  We have to be able to put Jesus before our wife/husband, because I'm convinced that if we do that our ability to love them and serve them is so great.  Live for His plan, not your own.  

"True love only comes once and you wont know till you lose it!"  

This life is short...we all know that.  Don't miss out on what true love is, a love so pure and genuine that we can't help but fall to our knees in worship.  The love of God.  We have this one life to decide our fate for the rest of eternity.  We should be so satisfied in Christ that we don't have to think about our partner can better satisfy us, right? We don't have time to fight and bicker about how he or she doesn't love me enough or what we deserve.  

I want to close with this thought, and it's probably going to be on my mind for the rest of the day if not the rest of the week.  We live in a world that pressures us into thinking that life is all about "me."  What's fair or unfair, just or unjust.  That's what jealousy, lying, cheating, and stealing our fueled by.  What if Jesus had that same mindset when he came to this earth, do you think we would be sitting here now on our computers as saved individuals? If Christ looked at all the people that tortured Him and spit on him and said, "You know what, I don't deserve this.  I'm the Son of God, these people don't deserve what I'm about to endure for them." Would we be saved right now? Absolutely not, but thanks be to God that He is as loving as He is.  He stepped into this world at such an opportune time. This is all the more reason to think and live as Jesus did, and not to give in to the lies of the earth. And we can display this in our love lives.  Being completely sacrificial in love for the other, not focussing on what we deserve but on what God deserves...and all the rest will fall into place. =)

Thanks for reading.