Much Love

"I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love." ~ Luke 7:47

There’s a story about a young couple who, after about a decade of marriage, went to see a counselor.  They told him that they had no intimacy in their marriage—and they didn’t mean what the world calls intimacy—and  they couldn’t figure out why.  The counselor listened to their stories and then said the reason they lacked this important part to their marriage was because they lacked “Holy Submission.”  He said that Holy Submission is described in Ephesians 5:22-33 as the wife  submitting to her husband as her shepherd (someone who protects, guides, and watches over others) as the church submits to Christ and as the husband loving and giving his life up for the wife as Christ did for the church.  Near the end of the session, the counselor spoke to the husband and wife separately, but told them both the same thing: you are the key to making this work.

After 3 weeks, the couple went back to the counselor and he asked how they were doing.  The wife said that God showed her that through Christ, she had the power within her to change the things about herself and to begin to live the way the Bible called her to live.  The husband said he’d studied 1 Corinthians 13 (aka the “love chapter”) and tried to model the things he’d learned in it.  The counselor was glad that they’d made so many improvements in such a short amount of time.  He said it was truly God’s Word (and not the works of the counselor) that had caused this change in their lives.  The wife said one more thing that really stuck out to the counselor.  She said, “I know I had a big part to play in how we drifted apart…although I didn’t see it until we came to see you.  But I must say, more than anything, it’s the grace he’s given me to change that’s really helped me the most.  His love and forgiveness of me melted my heart and drew me to want to be a better wife to him.”

Jesus said that for whom much has been forgiven, by them much love will be given (Luke 7:47).  How can you show your spouse grace today?  Have they wronged you in some way?  A way in which the world would tell you that you have every right to hold it over their heads or even divorce them?  Forgiveness is allowing God to touch them, to work in their lives, and to correct what needs to be corrected.  Forgiveness means taking your hands off the gavel in the courtroom, because you are no longer going to be judge and jury.  Forgiveness isn’t the easiest act of compassion, but as it did for the wife in this story, it may be the key thing that will melt their heart and allow them to move freely toward you and toward love.  If you aren’t living the life you’ve always dreamed of, perhaps there’s a change that needs to be made.  Ask God to reveal anything in your heart that needs to be revealed or changed.  He promised He’ll show you the way.

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. ~ 2 Timothy 1:7

~Heather Potts~