SPIRITUALITY AND FAITH
partly because they are human! But God can and Phil. 4:19 says (say it with me) “My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus!” When you seek God first, love Him & make your relationship with Him top priority, He promises to supply you with what you need! So “delight yourself in the Lord (Psa. 37:4) and He will give you the desires of your heart!” Further:
C. Love is Faithful and Forgiving. Hosea as an Old Testament prophet & writer shows in his marriage to Gomer what Heaven’s unconditional love looks like. Their marriage produced 3 children, but Gomer who had long made her living in immorality was not content to stay faithful to one man. Hosea loved her, but she spurned his love, leaving Hosea with a broken heart & the shame of abandonment. Hosea did what you can do, He “prayed a hedge of restraint around her life in prayer” so that she would find no rest with her lovers.” God answered that prayer & Gomer’s lovers left her! Hosea then bought her back, brought her home & welcomed her back into his life! Hosea shows the love story of God to each of us! Tho we rejected Him in many ways—He still loves us & remains faithful! Because of God’s example of faithfulness, you can gain unconditional love today for those undeserving in your life, that God can bring back into your life! Great homes & marriages are not created by people who never hurt each other, but by people who choose to do I Cor. 13:5 “do not take into account (do not record) wrongs suffered, do not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things.” We
all mess up at times and need God’s grace & our family’s grace. So with this, 2ndly see:
II. WHAT LOVE SEEKS
A. Love Seeks to Meet the Needs of those we Love, Forgive and Pray for Them! Prayer & intimacy with God provides the supernatural change and super-glue that can secure a covenant relationship “sensitive” to each other’s needs! In I Cor. 13:5 it says: “love does not act unbecomingly; does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered”. We all commit wrong and experience wrong. We are flawed people for all of us sin and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). To maintain a marriage or home like God intends, we need His Spirit to help us! George Carlin said it this way after the April 1999 Columbine HS Tragedy: “These are times of fast foods & slow digestion, big men & small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes, but more divorce…fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill”. Its why homes and marriages need to claim the Spiritual Birthright/Blessing of living a Power Filled Life!
B. Love Seeks to Understand What Your Partner or Parents Care About. It is the Holy Spirit’s purpose (as God’s Super Glue) in our lives to help us understand each other and to pray in the will of God. Such homes and lives dependent on the Holy Spirit would see a decline in divorce threats and child-parent anger levels. W.J.Seymour wrote in 1908 after the Azusa St., Los Angeles Revival: "If men & women today