Wednesday, October 1, 2008

O Body that bleeds

Are we, as a Body of Christ, not yet sick of our overindulgence in ourselves? Are we not yet tired of our gluttonous intake of as many articles of literature as we can possibly get our mouths around regarding marriage. We focus so much on marriage before it happens, and very little after the fact. We are so focused on marriage that we run after it as hard, if not harder and faster, than the pagans do....

Thus, though our Father knows that we need certain things (food, drink, clothes...not marriage...), we continue to run after this first instead of seeking His Kingdom and His Righteousness. All these things, therefore, are not added unto us....and why should they be...we don't deserve anything in the first place.

Let alone Him already having told us what we don't deserve (salvation found in faith through the grace of Jesus Christ manifested through obedience) needing to be our first place focus...and it's not


Pray that we change in response to His great love toward us.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How much does investing in your marriage and seeking the Kingdom first segway? I mean, just today I felt the Lord say to me that I hadn't been putting my husband first, and that it was a parallel to putting Him first. So, I get confused about that. Then, later in the day, I thought I heard Him say that I must follow where He is leading me and what He is telling me to do despite what my husband's reaction would be. I keep telling God that I am a woman, (which He knows) and that it would be much simpler if I was a man as far as answering a call of God on my life, but I 've always felt called, woman or not, married or not. Again, it get confusing. Thank God we all see through a glass darkly,but He brings us from glory to glory as we continue to walk with Him. This means to me that I am progressively "seeing more clearly" meaning seeing as He sees. New sight or light makes understanding clearer.

TheThinker said...

I would say they align almost perfectly if God is at the center of one's marriage, because marriage IS a picture of the Gospel. The post was directed toward single, late teens - mid-twenties Christians who idolize "the marriage relationship" rather than enthroning God in their hearts.

Patti Blount said...

I believe you are right. Yes, and I can see what you are saying about marriage being an idol for younger, less mature Christians. In fact, I've had to dethrone it time and time again in my own life. The reason I have idolized it was because of seeking to fill unmet emotional needs that I have had; looking to my husband to fill them so I could feel loved, accepted, significant, and whole, and then out of that I had felt I could then give to him. I am at a point now that, despite the pain of neglect that I feel and the internal woundedness which results, I want Jesus and His love to shine through me. The concept of the broken vessel, releasing the fragrance inside sort of thing. "Dying for others, so that they can be whole." Definately only done in His strength.