Bible Texts: 1Cor.13:4-7, Jas.2:18, Philip.2:13, Rom.10:10, 2Cor.5:17, Rom.5:5, Is.1:19, Jn.3:16, Philp.2:5, Rom.12:21, 1Pet.4:8, Mk.12:30, Eph.5:25-29, Col.3:19, Deut.6:6-8
In the little time I have spent in this assignment of raising godly husbandmen, I have observed a disconnection between reality and desire. When you ask the husbandman, who is having challenges with his wife and children, if he truly loves them, he would tell you, yes but…
This is why I believe the Person of the Holy Spirit is reminding you and I that living the kind of life that demonstrates God’s love toward our wife and children is neither a wish or a desire but an act of our will.
As the good and godly husbandman, you don’t wish you could love your wife or children. You deliberately, consciously, and committedly give them love, irrespective of whether they deserve it or not. When it comes to what God expects you to do for your wife and children, specifically as it relates to loving them, it is not time based nor is it situation based. So, you cannot love them today and hate them tomorrow.
But what is this love that I must demonstrate to my wife and children? 1Cor.13:4-7 provides the answer.
Love never gives up, love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head. Doesn’t force itself on other, isn’t always “me first”, doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back but keeps going to the end (1Cor.14:4-7, MSG)
As the husbandman, you do not wish that any of the demands of love as highlighted in 1st Corinthians chapter 13 above would jump on you. You have to willingly, dutifully, and wholeheartedly resolve in your heart that it must be done, can be done and you are doing it. The Scripture tells us that works are proof of our faith. When we believe anything, we demonstrate it by our actions (Jas.2:18). So, your action reflects the love of Christ you have towards your wife and children.
However, for you to empower your will to act out the demands of the love of Christ towards your wife and children, you must take the following practical steps.
First, you must purpose in your heart that you are a love-sowing and love-bearing agent (Dan.1:8, Is.1:19, Jn.3:16). Secondly, you must ask for the grace of God to act out His will to love your wife and children as Christ has loved the church (Php.2:13, Jn.15:5). Thirdly, you must contend to love them by the force of faith (2Cor.4:13, Jude 1:3, Heb.11:1). Fourthly, you must keep declaring that you are a lover and not a hater (Rom.10:10).
As the good and godly husbandman, you have no excuse or justification why you cannot love your wife and children. Love is of God and if you are not in love, you are not in God (1Jn.4:16). Therefore, decide today that you will and must love your wife and children unconditionally. The grace that makes the assignment easier will be made available to you in Jesus name. Amen.
SPIRITUAL EXERCISE
- Father, in the Name of Jesus, empower me to love my wife and children as You would and have commanded.
- Father, in the Name of Jesus, deliver me from bitterness, unforgiveness, hatred and envy.
- Father, in the Name of Jesus, shed abroad in my heart Your love and let it influence my action towards my wife and children.
FAITH CONFESSION
I have decided to love my wife and children irrespective of time, conditions and their failures because that is what makes me the good and godly husbandman after the manner of Jesus Christ in Jesus Name. Amen.
The devotional IN TUNE WITH GOD© is published by The Husbandman Mission International, Headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria.
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Bro. Ebenezer O. Igure
Head of Mission
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