Living our lives day by day in closeness to Jesus calls for desire. And intention.
Just like any healthy marriage motoring right into the sunset years, both parties – the man and the woman – make numberless small but significant choices. All along the journey each of them has grown into the habit of offering up expressions of worth and honor, the one to the other. This is the nature of what the Father had in mind in the covenant relationship – man wedded to the woman, woman wedded to the man.
In similar manner, the intentional and deliberate follower of Christ routinely offers up to him both actions and words. Expressions of love are core. It is this that sets the disciple apart. The casual Christian, meanwhile, may content himself with an occasional nod to a religious creed.
Priorities
That boy or girl, man or woman who’s growing in Christ is assured of belonging to him. They do not fear losing the relationship. Jesus their savior has redeemed them from the old kingdom of ego where Self sat perched atop the me-centered throne of the heart.
While secure in his everlasting hope, the disciple set on Christlikeness is one who is not content to merely qualify for the ‘someday upward flight’ to the afterworld. The apprentice counts the value tag of his life as a thing reflecting a far more expansive aim. While the afterlife destination means much to him, the love-smitten apprentice aspires less to owning heaven than to being owned by heaven.
© 2023 Jerry Lout
‘Being owned by heaven’ – love this!
Thank you, Rebecca
‘forgetting those things which are behind’……… Philippians 3:13; these are words of wisdom apply to marriage as well as any situation. It is essential that a couple have a forgiving and a forgetting heart. Emotions are fickle; marriage is today, right now. ken
Indeed. A happy marriage is serious work! Thank you, Ken.