Last night as we were flipping channels, Robin and I came upon a show that really caught my interest. It's called Celebrity Wife Swap. The premise of the show is that two couples switch their spouses for one week to learn from an outside perspective what things they can work on in their own marriages.
The show last night featured Mick Foley who was a very popular WWE wrestler from the Pensacola area as well as his wife and kids. The other family featured was a couple who were strikingly good-looking but very defensive and combative and immature in their relationship.
After the week was over and the two couples met to discuss what they had learned, the Foley's were very humbled and felt like they had gained much to help them in their relationship. They already had a very tender and sweet relationship but lacked order in the home as well as just having good old fun as a family. The other couple however became very defensive when the other spouse suggested changes. There was no connecting as they really had very little gentleness and tenderness between them where they could really hear each other's hearts.
One of the things that I love in Robin's and my marriage is that from the very beginning we try to always keep our "pea-pod" clean (that's what we call it--the 2 of us and Jesus) on a daily basis. We check in with each other regularly to make sure that nothing has gotten in of negativity or allowing others drama to affect us to where we disconnect.
Staying connected is the most important thing in marriage by a longshot. Robin and I both did not fully understand that in our first marriages and thereby now put a very high premium on cultivating continual connection of the heart daily to where we truly hear each other at all times. When defensiveness tries to get in, we immediately pray and we renounce it and embrace humility and tenderness before the Lord.
But I don't really want to talk about marriage and marriage relationships today. I want to talk about our personal relationship with the Holy Spirit.
I look back over my 33 years as a Christian, much of that in full-time service to God, and lament the fact that just like in my marriage, where I didn't fully know how to stay connected, I really didn't fully understand how to stay connected to the Lord day in day out either. I was inwardly very noisy. My mind and thoughts easily went all over the place causing all kinds of emotional chaos. I loved the Lord with all of my heart as well as his people ,but did not understand the dynamics of a healthy relationship, whether with my spouse or with the Lord himself.
What I have learned and now walk in -- not just with Robin, but with the Holy Spirit, truly is what Romans 12 labels as walking in the Kingdom of God, walking under his rule in our daily lives where righteousness, peace and joy by and large mark each day. The Holy Spirit is a gentle dove and though he never stops loving us, it is hard for him to stay in fellowship with us when we are aggressive, loud, and plowing our way through life just trying to survive. He is attracted to a peaceful heart that is content and always listening and open rather than angry and defensive.
I want to challenge you today dear ones to step up to another level. I believe too many of our marriages are marked by strife and discord and defensiveness rather than righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. I likewise believe that too many of God's children don't enjoy the close fellowship of the Holy Spirit that Jesus died to give everyone of us, not just a select few. It will take humbling ourselves and admitting that we are defensive, often ornery, many times not pleasant to be around, whether with our spouse or children or the Holy Spirit himself. I don't know about you, but I want to be the kind of person that people enjoy being around but most importantly the Holy Spirit enjoys being around.
I will leave you with this verse that has been on my heart this morning:
"May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all."
Amen!
Pastor Bobby Lepinay
God May Not Have a Wonderful Plan for Your Life
If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a million times:
God has a wonderful plan for your life.
Tell this to a grieving mother standing beside a gaping grave dug for her child. Tell it to a man who can’t keep the voices away, who longs to be normal but can’t will his mind to function properly. Tell it to a woman who was raped. Tell it to a child while he is being cut into pieces and suctioned from his mother’s womb.
I understand the sentiment behind what we are saying when we use this phrase. But, my friends, look around you. A great many people live lives full of sorrow, tragedy, horror, pain, and abuse.
Where is God in all this? the seeker will ask. What does God have to do with the pain and the sorrow in this world?
Why, everything.
He sees, He cares, He knows, and, yes, His will reigns supreme. This world is broken. We are broken people. God told us this would be so. He never promised a wonderful life. In fact, He promised hardship. Jesus said the poor will be blessed. But, He didn’t say He would end poverty. He said those who mourn will be comforted. But, He never promised that mourning wouldn’t be part of our lives.
Life is hard, even when you’re a Christian. Even when you try to love God with all your heart, bad things will happen. Terrible things will come. And, this is the danger in telling each other God has a wonderful plan for your life. Because there are just too many moments and hours and days and weeks that don’t feel like a wonderful plan. They feel like an awful plan. They feel like a devastating plan. And, in those moments, the wonderful life idea just rings hollow. It makes us mad at God. It makes us resent Him and it leads us to believe that He was lying when He said, I have a wonderful plan for your life.
Only He never said that. We have confused something well-meaning Christians have repeated millions of times with something that God actually promised. Yes, someone has been lying to you, but it’s not God.
Here’s the truth of the matter: If you are a Christian, God has a wonderful plan for your eternity. Jesus promised that He is getting some pretty amazing (dare I say wonderful) stuff ready for you in Heaven. And, He is coming back to Earth to do a whole new wonderful thing someday.
God has a plan for your life on earth, too. But, it’s not for a 100% wonderful existence. That was the garden of Eden. Times have changed. Our lives on earth will be trying, difficult, sometimes tragic, sometimes almost unbearable, often sprinkled with lots of great times, truly amazing and awe-inspiring experiences, and love. And all of these things, good and bad, bring glory to God, can help us know Him more, can bring us to our knees, can take us sailing to heights we’ve never known before. The human existence is a roller coaster of fear, doubt, happiness, pain, fun, beauty, anger, grace, mercy, anguish, and brokenness. God gives wonderful moments. But, this life isn’t always wonderful.
Learn to be okay with that. Learn that God does what He does for reasons you can’t always see or understand. Learn to believe that God is good, even when the un-wonderful of life creeps in.
This life is only one stitch in the infinite and intricate fabric of eternity. There is so much wonderful waiting for us in that forever. Until then, God loves you, and He has a plan for your life. Whatever it is, don’t lose faith when wonderful seems miles away. Even when the circumstances of life aren’t wonderful, our God still is.
Recent Comments