What
is failure? One dictionary says to fail means “to fall short of success or
achievement in something expected, attempted, desired, or approved.” Another definition is “to be or become
deficient or lacking; be insufficient or absent; fall short.”
When
1Corinthians 13:8 says “Love never fails”, it means God’s Love can never become
deficient or lacking. God’s Love can
never fall short of success or achievement. Within in God’s Love is everything
sufficient to cause your marriage to succeed.
In His Love is everything needed to achieve success in any area of your
life. God’s Love can never fail! We can fail, but when we are in God’s Love
and when we represent God’s Love in our everyday life and in the way we speak
to our husband and others, we cannot fail or fall short.
Like clothes after a few washings or things
left out in the sun or thoughts – they all fade. But God’s love never fades. He is the
same. He is Love. His love never fails to wash over us and make
us new.
God’s
love never becomes obsolete like fashion or last year’s technology.
There
is nothing on earth that could compare to God’s love because everything on
earth is created for man to use.
We use it up and it’s gone. God
never fades, becomes obsolete or comes to an end, therefore, neither can His
love.
Romans
8:35 says “Who shall ever separate us from Christ's love? Shall suffering and
affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger
or destitution or peril or sword?”
Don’t
let your mouth separate you from God’s love by speaking against your husband or
letting impatience overcome you. Because,
to do so, means you do not believe God's Love will never fail. He will not separate from us, but with our mouths,
we separate from Him in our disbelief.
Ephesians 3:17-19 says:
17May
Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His
permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded
securely on love, 18That
you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints
[God's devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and
length and height and depth [of it]; 19[That you may really come] to
know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which
far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled
[through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest
measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded
with God Himself]!
This
is a prayer from Paul to the church as Ephesus.
He is telling them what he prays for the members of the church. It’s important to note that we can have this,
by faith, without anyone else’s prayer for us.
We simply need to confess this over ourselves. “Christ,
through my faith, dwells in my heart. I
am rooted deep in love and founded securely on love. I have the power and am strong to grasp what
is the breadth and length and height and depth of His love in me. I know and experience for myself the love of
Christ and it surpasses any head knowledge.
I am filled with all my being the fullness of God and am fully flooded
with God himself!”
So
as we renew our thinking and our hearts with this Word, we become more rooted
and grounded in His love. At the same
time we are renewing ourselves with this Word, begin to pray this same prayer
over your husband, , just as Paul prays it over the church. You don’t have to wait until you have fully renewed
your mind because it is a continual process.
You will start to see a drastic transformation in yourself as you get
this Word in your heart. It is then that
you will start to really see how His Love never fails. It is then that you will
start to see your husband as God sees Him.
God doesn’t see your shortcomings or your husbands. He only sees His children, whom He dearly
loves.
When
a full-grown, mature tree is rooted, it takes a lot of force to uproot. But
notice a baby tree, a sapling, will not take nearly as much force to
uproot. That’s how we need to be in His
love. We might be babies in Him right
now, that’s why it seems hard to walk in love now. But as we continue to do His Word and
as we continue to renew our minds with His Word, it becomes more
established in our hearts. We become more rooted in His Word and His
love. That way, the next time your husband does something that would normally
bother you, it won’t take you out of God’s love.
Don’t
get discouraged if it seems it’s not working.
God’s power is doing a work in you and your husband as you speak this
prayer over him. But it’s a process just
like babies aren’t born walking. It
takes time. As the child desires to walk
in order to reach something previously unobtainable, they start trying harder
to walk. They try more often. It doesn’t matter that they fall and even if
they get hurt. They just get back up and try again. Why?
Because their desire to “obtain” something is greater than the pain that
it may take to get there.
What is your desire for your
marriage? Is it strong? Strong enough to
keep trying?
© 2011 Michelle
Serna