Love for a Lifetime

If you have been married for any length of time, you know that God uses our relationship with our spouse to move us towards Him.  Our marriages are His way of displaying His amazing love for His bride to the world.  God reveals Himself through this love relationship, and as we grow in intimacy with our husbands we learn that love is much more than a word, it is a declaration of the life flow of Jesus in our lives.  He comes to forgive us, heal us, comfort us and rescue us.  He doesn't demand from us, He doesn't condemn us, He isn't impatient with us or fault finding.

My honey and I have been through deep waters these past months, but like Daniel, the Lord has shut the mouths of the lions time and again and has proven Himself so faithful...so unbelievably faithful.  I just want to encourage anyone who is going through a fire of their own these days...God has a plan for you and your marriage.  His desire is that we learn to die to self (huge, important step) and then look to Him for our source of security, strength and worth.  It is incredible what the Lord can do when we surrender to Him.  He can do what to us seems impossible, and He can dream through us again.  He is the God of "re's"...restoration, redeeming love, reclaiming and re-dreaming.  My husband and I are doing a lot of re-dreaming these days and I am so excited to see what the Lord is going to do in my marriage as I lay down my expectations and control and stop trying to change my husband (can you relate?!!!)

A few months ago one of my precious sister-friends gave me the scripture, "For I will restore to you the years the locust has eaten."  This is from the book of Joel.  I'm side-tracking here but why not :0)  I was at the Auburn library a couple of weeks ago and as I perused the shelves of Christian literature, my eyes fell on the title, "After the Locusts."  I took the book off the shelf and read the back cover.  Undoubtedly the Lord had led me straight to this book.  He had something to say to me and as I began to read the first few chapters I felt like truth was being poured into me and the Holy Spirit began to minister to me.  I started to weep.  He knows exactly what we need and He is never late.  When I went to the back of the book to learn a bit about this author I was shocked to read that she was from, non other than Auburn, California!  What?  I felt like the Lord was saying, "Get in touch with this woman Gina."  I haven't yet, but I intend to...this week!  I'll keep you posted on what comes of the conversation.  I think she is supposed to come and speak to our "Changes" group.  Wouldn't that be incredible?

I think I'll close this post with a beautiful word from the book of Hosea...

"Come and Let us return to the Lord,

for He has torn so that he may heal us; 

He has stricken so that He

may bind us up.

Yes, let us know (recognize, be acquainted with, and understand) Him;

let us be zealous to know the Lord.  His

going forth is prepared and certain as the dawn, and He will come to us as 

the heavy rain, as the latter rain that waters

the earth."

Praise God!!!