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DAILY DEVOTIONALS Monday A Defining Marriage
Read Genesis 2:18–25. We all long for a best friend, lover, and partner who will stay with us—no matter what! King Solomon captured these feelings when he wrote the book Song of Solomon. He said, “This is my beloved, this is my friend” (Song of Solomon 5:16). Today, his words are frequently used in weddings. Maybe it’s because we can easily identify with the desire for romance and the need to have a faithful soul mate. Unfortunately, today many marriages end in divorce, and this happens because marriage is often defined by the world’s standards. So, how does God define marriage? First, God intends marriage to last a lifetime, to be an everlasting covenant. In Ephesians 5:22–26, Paul likens the love and commitment between Christ and His church to the love and commitment between a husband and wife. And second, in marriage God makes two become one (Genesis 2:23–24) so that they live together in love, united in spirit and purpose.
Ask God to help you define your marriage by His standards so that it will last a lifetime!
Tuesday An Inseparable Union
Read 1 John 2:15–17. So many things can threaten separation between a husband and a wife or division between friends—bad habits, addictions, and sometimes simple selfishness. Do any of these sound familiar? You’re not alone. Paul writes, “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22). And, in 1 Corinthians 10:13 he tells us that God is faithful and will help us to overcome temptation to sin. Marriages and relationships defined by this world’s standards may be broken up with sin and temptation, but those defined by God and empowered by His Spirit can be inseparable. God tells us that He brings two people together and nothing of this world should separate them (Matthew 19:6).
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Wednesday A Reflecting Love
Read I John 4:9–11, 19. You’ve likely heard the statement that you must love yourself before you can authentically love another. It’s true! Dislike yourself and you’re apt to dislike others. As Christians, loving ourselves means loving the person God made us to be. You may be married, engaged, or waiting to meet the right person, but accepting God’s love for you is critical to loving others. God’s love for us is hard to deny! He sent His only Son to die on the cross for us so that we would be saved (John 3:16). We’re told that God lovingly created and knew us even when we were in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13–16), and His compassions never fail (Lamentations 3:22). Only because He loves us first are we able to love others (1 John 4:19). And “since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11). God wants you to know His love and reflect that same love in your relationships.
Commit to reading and personalizing Romans 8:31–39 for the next seven days!
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Thursday A Selfless Love
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Read Song of Solomon 8:6–7. It says of love, “It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away.” Unfortunately, many of us have felt love quenched, and sometimes we’ve even done the quenching! Often, this quenching stems from selfishness. Selfishness can be a relationship killer because it sucks the life out of a relationship. It is not reciprocal but only thinks and acts with one thing in mind: What’s in it for me?
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One way to keep the love in relationships burning is to think of others first, instead of yourself. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Philippians 2:3–4).
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Read 1 Peter 4:8–10 and commit to using your gifts to display two or three selfless acts in the next few days!
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Define what sin, bad habits, or temptations are threatening the important relationships in your life, and ask God for His delivering power and grace to resist and overcome them!
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MARRIAGE SUNDAY
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