One of the burdens that I have on my heart is for the family… for children… for marriages. The Word of God is very clear that in the last days love will grow cold.
Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. ~ Jesus (Matthew 24:12-13)
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power… (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
One of the reasons for divorce in our day is irreconcilable differences… this ought not to be so in Christian marriages because we have been given the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:16-20).
I fear we live in a day when many have a form of godliness but they have denied its power… as wives and mothers our first working out of our own salvation (Philippians 2:12-21) should be demonstrated within our homes before our husbands and our children. If we cannot speak truth and live out love with them then what we speak and portray before others is hypocrisy. If we cannot live a life without grumbling or disputing within the walls of our home then we really never will in the world…
If we cannot love our husbands and love our children with the love of Christ… then we have never loved at all. If we cannot apply Matthew 5:42-47, Luke 6:35-36, and Romans 12:9-21 to the members of our own house then we are fake if we say we offer it to others.
In this day it’s more popular, even in the “church”, to forsake those that cause us grief rather than to choose to love them in spite of it. When someone cramps our style or makes us feel uncomfortable instead of asking ourselves why this is and asking God how we can learn to love them we just “unfriend” them or write a vague status concerning them or walk out on them or send them to their rooms or cheer when school starts back and we don’t have to deal with them.
It’s easy to show love and feel all “Christian” when it’s just you and a keyboard. But how’s it working out when real live breathing souls are around? This is where we find out if we really trust God… this is where faith is walked by and grace is displayed.
As a new year approaches I pray that we women, we wives, we mothers, will resolve to love our husbands and to love our children and to work out our salvation before them.
If you struggle in this area… it’s time to be real before someone… preferably someone who is wiser, who has been there and done that… and is not afraid to speak truth into you… I suggest you share your struggles with someone who can speak from experience… and if you are that one who can speak from experience… please know that we younger wives and mothers… we desperately need you in this day. So please don’t be silent. Don’t be shy. Don’t think we don’t want to hear what you have to say… even if we act like we don’t… we need you.
Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.
Titus 2:3-5
Speaking from Experience from Shiloh Baptist Church on Vimeo.
The word of God has been dishonored enough in our day… let us be the generation that remembers that it is holy and good and profitable and worthy of our obedience to it and to Him. Don’t let your love grow cold… keep it hot and on fire… for our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). Let His fire refine you and ignite you to love with a love that burns deep and sears the hearts of those around you. Let us love with a love that melts away all deceit and hypocrisy and let us love with real faithful Jesus love. A love that remembers that He gives His Spirit without measure (John 3:34) and if we are truly sent by Him we will speak like Him, live like Him, and love like Him… and let us begin with our husbands and with our children.