The Very Best Prescription from the Love Standard Series
“Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love – but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 CSB
Hey friend!
Today kicks off our love standard series and I am so excited to share it with you!! Over the next eight weeks, we will be digging into God’s word as we uncover what it truly means to love others, especially our husbands or future husbands (for all my single friends 😊).
I can’t wait to get started but first, let me fill you in on some details.
Starting next week, we will begin to dig deep in God’s Word and each week for eight weeks, we will uncover truths about love from 1 Corinthians 13. This series called “The Love Standard” will go out each Thursday. Also, each week there will be a challenge issued over the particular truth we are discussing as it relates to our marriages and relationships. I encourage you to do a couple of things:
Pray and ask God to open your heart, ears, eyes, mind, and soul so you can see Him, hear from Him, and be receptive to His leading.
Pray and ask God to reveal areas where you aren’t showing love and replace them with His standard of love, as well as revealing any misconceptions you have about love.
Get a journal to write down all that God is showing you and speaking to you about this subject.
Suit up with the Armor of God – anytime we get serious about our relationship with God and His standard with our other relationships, you can be sure that the enemy has a target on our back (Ephesians 6:10-18)
Engage with us on social media and share how God is moving in your relationships and any prayer requests you might have.
You might be asking, “Why a series on the love chapter?” I’m sure we all have heard and read this chapter a million times over our lives that it can feel like it’s redundant to talk about. Oh, sweet friend, it is quite the opposite.
Over the last several months, I’ve been challenged and convicted with this verse about love. Well, if I’m being truthful, I’ve been challenged and convicted by the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 13. Do you ever have moments where you come face to face with a difficult season in life and you just don’t know what to do about it?
A couple of months ago, I was going through a particularly hard season and sought out some wise counsel to help me navigate the issues I was facing. And, wow, I’m sure glad I did. This person not only helped me to see the big picture of what was going on, but also gave me wisdom from God’s Word on how to move forward.
One of the truths that I know but often forget about is that when I have a problem in life, there is really only one source to go to for the answer and that is God’s Word. His Word is the very best prescription to any kind of issue or dilemma that I face. So, when it comes to our marriages, it only makes sense to seek out His very best prescription for it.
Our key verse says, “Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love – but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13. I’ll be honest. This verse has really tripped me up in the past. It hasn’t always made sense to me that love outweighed faith and hope. And yet, God says the greatest of these three is love. I wonder why?
Love can be traced all the way back to the character of God because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)
Love is also the foundation of the ten commandments as described in Matthew 22:36-40.
It has become very clear to me that this subject of love is very important to God and should be very important to us as well. So, let’s make it our priority over the next eight weeks to learn more about God’s definition of love and how we can apply it to our relationship with our spouse and all the many other relationships we have in life. I’m so excited to get started!! It may not be easy at times, but I can promise you - it will be worth it!
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for your Word. Thank you for your standard and guidance on how we should love you, others, as well as ourselves. You are faithful to lead us and guide us in every situation that we encounter. Open our hearts, eyes, ears, mind, and souls to see you and hear you. Convict us where we need it and show us how we can love like you love. Your standard is the very best prescription we need for every relationship we have in this walk of life. Guard us from the enemy as we seek your truth and help us realize when he is on the attack. Draw us close to you. Strengthen our marriages and our relationships as we learn to live out your standard for how to truly love. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Dig Deeper:
“Hatred stirs up conflicts, but love conquers all offenses.” Proverbs 10:12 CSB
“This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.” John 15:12 CSB
Reflection:
Write down how you define love.
On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the least amount and 10 being the most frequent, rate how you demonstrate showing love to your husband on a consistent basis.
In what areas are you struggling to extend love to your husband? Write them down and be honest with yourself.
What are some “triggers” that makes it difficult to show love to your spouse? Write them down and begin to pray over them – we will visit this list frequently as we look to God’s word over the next several weeks.
Challenge #1 - Is there a particular thing/habit that your husband does that gets on your nerves the most? Write it down and commit to pray over it. (Write down as many as you need to - as long as you focus more about praying over them than the actual things you wrote down– the object is to move forward rather than backward 😊)
Challenge #1 Details:
The challenge is not to focus so much on the particular thing/habit that your husband does that gets on your nerves, but to focus more on:
Asking God to help you to see your husband the way God sees him.
To open your eyes to how God has uniquely created your husband and show you how you can focus on the positives rather than the negatives.
As God changes your way of thinking about that “thing (s)” – share it with us so we can rejoice with you over how God is moving in your marriage.