A House Divided

Ever feel like you and your spouse are living in two different worlds?

Well, maybe you are.

For any person struggling in your marriage, the first thing you must come to an acknowledgement of truth about, is, what is your relationship with Jesus Christ?"  

Do you know Christ at all?  Do you obey Him? Are you born again? Is He your Lord and your God? Have you invited Christ to dwell in your heart as your Savior?

It's all about having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

The 'problems' in a marriage are merely symptoms.  But the root cause can always be traced back to an individual's personal relationship (or lack of a relationship) with Christ.

For anyone out there who is angry with your spouse, "done with the marriage", refusing to forgive him or her for what they did to you, I would ask you this one question:  "Do you love God?"

What do you mean?

It's a simple question.  You either love God, or you don't.

So, how do you know if you truly love God?  

What did Jesus say about that?

"If you love Me, keep My commandments." (John 14:15)

Which commandments?

For starters, what did Jesus say about divorce?

"And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, "For this reason a man shall leave His father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two, but are one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate." -(Matt 19:4-6)

Oh sure, you can find a loophole for that if you really want to divorce your spouse.  After all, Jesus did say, divorcing your spouse is permitted—but only if there was sexual immorality involved. 

But He also said: 

"Because of the hardness of your hearts, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives, but, from the beginning, it was not so."

The hardness of your heart. —That's the root of your problem.  

A hard heart refuses to forgive.

"Yeah but, you don't know what they did to me!"

Yes, but, didn't Jesus forgive you for all that you have done to Him?

"Yeah, but..."

You either know and love God, or you don't. There is no in-between.

What is the evidence in your life that proves that you truly know God?

"Now, by this we know that we know Him; if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him," but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His Word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we know Him." (1 John 2:3-5)

So, if you're looking for a loophole so that you can justify to yourself that you are legally permitted to divorce your spouse, then you will probably find one somewhere.

But if you are being truly honest with yourself, and with God, you must ask yourself this question:

"Do I truly know and love God?"

Until you choose to truthfully answer that question, and resolve it with God, you will never know true joy, peace, or freedom.

Jesus said: "He whom the Son has set free, is free indeed."

Christ the Savior also said, (Revelation 3:20)

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and if any man will open up to Me, I will come in to him and and dine with him, and he with Me."

You have to choose to open the door of your heart to Christ from the inside, and invite Him to come in.  

He won't kick the door down.  He won't ever force you.

     —Choose Love.

—God is Love, and Love Never Fails.

You Are Precious

"You were worth dying for..."

Those were the precious, reassuring words I heard the other night—in the wee hours of the morning, from the still small voice of the Holy Spirit. 

It was a gentle whisper, but powerful—penetrating my weary heart and soul.

However, so as to not be misunderstood here, I do want to clarify that, in of ourselves—in our flesh; we have no worth to God. Not because of any good things that we try to do. There is absolutely nothing that we can do to make Him love us. We are only of great worth to God because He made us for His good pleasure and because He made us to be the objects of His love. That is what I mean by saying "worth dying for."

Because of His goodness and grace, God took worthless sinners like me and called me the pearl of great price. That's amazing grace!

It's about God's love for us—not about our attributes. Truth is, we're sinners who deserve Hell for sinning against God. But because of His love, goodness, mercy and grace; "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever shall believe in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

However, our Enemy who never sleeps, who only comes to steal, kill and destroy, is very adept at bringing the accusation against us that we're worthless to God. "You screwed up, again! No hope for you, pathetic little Christian! "

Wrong.

I know that in my flesh, dwells no good thing.  In of myself, I was not worthy of salvation.  I couldn't fix myself or save myself.  I could never be "good enough."  I desperately needed Christ the Savior.

But before He created the universe and the world, He knew me—knew you—intimately. 

And before time began, His plan all along was to leave the splendor of Heaven, and come to earth to become a Man—the Son of Man—and give up everything—laying down His life—to restore the severed relationship with fallen humanity.

You and I, as the objects of God's love, are precious to Him.

Jesus teaches us the parable of the pearl of great price in Matthew 13:45-46:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

The first time I read this passage, I assumed that the kingdom of Heaven was the beautiful pearl, and the "merchant" represented a man like me, who, having found it, "gave up everything he had" to obtain it.

But that's not the meaning or the intent of the passage in Matthew at all. 

My Mom once told me that when she first became a Christian, that she thought she would have to give up so much to be close to God.  But she said that God showed her she didn't "give up" anything, but rather, He set her free from all those harmful or distracting things that were not good for her or beneficial.

You don't have to "give up everything" for God to accept you.

You only have to surrender your heart and hurts to Jesus Christ, and invite Him in, to bring eternal life and salvation to a lost soul, acknowledging that you cannot possibly fix yourself, or be 'good enough.'    

You and I are the beautiful pearl of great price, precious to God. And God gave up everything—His only Son—sending Him to die on the Cross—to obtain us.  He laid down His life and gave up all He had, because you and I were given worth by His grace for us.

Grace changes everything.

If you're feeling unlovable, or worthless, or inadequate, please stop and really consider what God did by giving up everything for you.  You are of such great worth and value to God.  You are the pearl of great price.  And He laid down His life for you, and for me.

I am absolutely convinced that if God knew there was just one person in all of history who would believe in the redeeming work that Christ did by dying on the Cross and then receive Him into their heart as their Savior, that He would still have chosen to come and die on that Cross for that one person.

That's how much He loves you.

So, when the Enemy, or cruel people accuse you falsely or spitefully take advantage of you—please remember this parable of the pearl of great price.  And then rejoice that you were that precious pearl, and Jesus Christ died for you, so that you could be His daughter or son—His family.

Jesus said (John 3:16):

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

God has made you to be the object of His love.

—God is Love, and Love Never Fails.