Here We Go Again

2010

Another year. Another decade.

How many good intentions will go by the wayside? What resolutions will I be able to keep?

"I want to work harder on my marriage." Can't go wrong with that!

Yet what does that mean? Will I try not to get so angry so quickly? Maybe I'll try and be more thoughtful and not take my spouse for granted. Perhaps I'll resolve to pray more for and with my spouse to keep our focus on the Lord. Our overall desire is to be more consistent and grateful in order to grow.

The call to love and live out the gospel in our marriages should not be reduced to an annual commitment or resolution. It should rather be an assumed fact based on our vows to God and those witnesses. It should also be based on God's commitment to us in Christ.

Instead of working harder on our marriages perhaps we should rest harder in the love of Christ. So many of us today appear more restless than confident in the love of Jesus. His marriage to us is based on an unconditional love. His call to us is not to "try harder" but to rest. His death on the cross was a direct statement to us.

Forgiveness. Forever loved. Adopted. Never abandoned.

"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" Romans 8:31,32

Here's a resolution not just for this year but for the remaining years of your life:
"I resolve to be more in love with my marriage to Christ."

The deepest resolve of our souls should be to be so grounded and embraced in the love of Christ that everything in our lives flows from Him. The world, the church, our children, should see a people who love because they are loved. Their identify is not in the success or failure of earthly relationships but in the finished work of Jesus that has truly set us free.

Go rest in His love and have a Happy New Year!