Love Never Fails

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

Love Endures Without Weakening

Colossians 3:12b:

Clothe yourselves… [in] patience [which is tireless and long-suffering, and has the power to endure whatever comes, with good temper].

You are a representative of Christ.  How long did God endure until it was time for His Son to come to save us? We have His nature.  Endurance and patience is a part of His nature and so therefore it is in us.

We are tempted to give up.  Have you ever worked really hard for something that wasn’t easy? In fact, it was more difficult than you have ever worked before?  You might have been breathing hard and sweating.  But the hope of getting to the end gave you enough strength to finish.  That is how it is with God. When it seems we can’t continue walking in love with our husband, remind yourself you have hope!  Your heavenly Father.  He gives you strength.  “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.”

Psalm 107:1 says “O GIVE thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!”  Remember, we have His nature.  Let our mercy and loving-kindness endure forever as we choose to love our husbands.

James 5:11 shows us there is Hope in enduring.  We endure and we ultimately see the purpose and just how richly we are blessed as we endure.

You know how we call those blessed (happy) who were steadfast [who endured]. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the Lord's [purpose and how He richly blessed him in the] end, inasmuch as the Lord is full of pity and compassion and tenderness and mercy.

Our Heavenly Father has nothing but compassion, tenderness and mercy towards us.  He will not leave us alone to endure.  He is ever with us.  Let us pray and make this same compassion, mercy and tenderness available to our spouse.  Let us thank Him and praise Him continually for the help of the Holy Spirit to endure and thank Him that His nature of mercy and loving-kindness is seen in everything we say and do and that it is visibly seen by our husbands and that it ministers to him.  Not only that, but he receives this mercy and love.  That power of love and mercy is working in his heart.  Praise the Lord!

© 2011 Michelle Serna