Ephesians Week 6

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 Ephesians 5   5  1  Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children   2  and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3  But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.   4  Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.   5  For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. [ a ]   6  Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.   7  Therefore do not be partners with them. 8  For you were once darkness, but now you are light i...
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Loving...unconditionally...

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I am just sick of disposable families...disposable kids...disposable marriages.   Just yesterday news broke that Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony have decided to end their marriage.  Last month Maria Shriver filed for divorce from Arnold Schwarzenegger.  The celebrities that decide to end their marriages make me sad, but the friends in my life who  have decided to end their marriages make me miserable.  I don’t understand why they can’t fight for love.  As believers we are called to unconditional love.  I think our society is so “me centered”..that we don’t even have a concept of what unconditional love is.  After 21 years of marriage and almost 13 years as a mom, I have some experienced -gained-wisdom and some learned-wisdom (from God’s word).  Unconditional Love is  often an invisible force  field… only truly made visible by uncomfortable situations resulting in pain, disappointment, anger from another’s behavior.  So how do I know when I love unconditionally? When I am uncomfortable,  and don’t really want to love…. My feelings aren’t light and airy… aren’t sweet… , but  I choose to love anyway , then, and only then... am I loving unconditionally.
With my kids... there are times that I struggle, I struggle with feeling unconditionally love when I am getting that “look back”, getting that head roll, etc.  But...I still fight for it...fight for that love...  Unconditional love is  knowing how I love is not determined by success or failure in my parenting ….although I am shooting for success. Amen!  I have to remember that sometimes what I see as failure might be  the biggest step that God uses for their success.  Unconditional love helps me choke off words that do not need or are not ready to be said…ohhh that’s a hard one for me.  But, I do believing that failure is sometimes the gas to the engine of success….    Unconditional Love is seeing your child, your spouse, your parent, your friend, or your neighbor through God’s Eyes.  …and we all know that HE is crazy about them!    If you can not see how HE loves them unconditionally.. ..how HE is crazy about them…pray…. Simply ask Him!  God will be faithful to  show you how He views them... through His Eyes!  When you do this, it will changing how you think, the words you do use ..and the words you don’t use... your love will have action. J
Unconditional Love  is the power that drags unwilling feet (theirs and ours)  to all sorts of places that build up ...heal and restore.    Unconditional Love sometimes has to put up with some whining, deal with a bit of balking,.....kind of like making a child eat their peas. We do the hard things ..because it is best..for ALL of US!
What is God’s calling for us, His people?  Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12)

God made us His peopleHIShI. We are called to love – God first, then our spouses and next our children and finally those around us.
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:15)

If someone ever tells you that being an Unconditional Love Priority is unrealistic – just ask them, “Isn’t that how God wants us to treat each other? If I am a priority to God, then God wants me to be a priority to my husband, and He wants my husband, my children and Him to be my top priorities.”

Of course, the only way to Love UNCONDITIONALLY is by God’s Holy Spirit.  We have no power to muster this up on our own.
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:13)

So, what about our marriages???…..Love Never Gives Up….Love Hopes…Love Prioritizes, makes you feel favored.

Unconditional Love finds a way to love . . . .ALWAYS..not just sometimes . . . . no matter how big or small you feel. . . . when words are turned away or when words are few. . . . when hugs are spurned. .  when you give but feel only rejection in return . . . . when help is declined. . . . when walking out is preferable to being together.  LOVE STAYS!

Love Finds a Way. . . . Through prayers carried by the Holy Spirit to the Heart of the Father – and He finds a way to deliver those hugs, those words, help that actually helps…

Read God’s word.  Decide for yourselves if what I say is true.  Fight for your marriages!  There are GREAT blessings to be had!

1 Corinthians 13    1 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 89 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.  13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Matthew 5: 32- 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.
Romans 7: 1- 31 Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to men who know the law—that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. 3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.

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