"what is your life about today?"

from my 05 February 2017 evening devotion. right after is 06 Feb 2017 evening devotion. when u read these, ask God to open ur heart up. honestly look at u and let God remove what to be removed and place what He needs u to have. love is more than what the world sees it as. pure love comes from only one source and u must be willing to open up honestly so God can fill u up with His love.

FACE TO FAITH:

1 Corinthians 13:13 NASB

[13] But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

If you could boil your life down to one thing, what would it be? What is the repeated, prolonged echo that fills your life? 

My hope for you today, because this is the will of God, is that this one thing in your life is love. Strip everything else away, all other motivations, all other callings, all other attitudes, and I hope that we would find love in each one of us today. 

You might wonder why love is so important. Well, it’s because everything we do, no matter how wonderful or good, is worthless if it doesn’t come from love in our hearts. 

That’s quite a challenge for us as we approach the topic of marriage, isn’t it? I mean, look at an average day and tell me, is everything you do for even one day toward your spouse motivated by love? 

“Well, what does that look like, Bob?” I can tell you, because 1 Corinthians 13 tells us. I encourage you to read it in full, but let me boil it down by saying this—the opposite of love is not hate; the opposite of love is selfishness. 

Love is a choice we make to pursue another person, to seek their benefit above our own. This choice requires us to shape our actions and guard our heart with our spouse in mind, considering them to be of more consequence than ourselves. 

Chances are good, however, that this has not always been our experience, either with our spouses or with other people in our lives. All of us come into our marriages as damaged goods, so to speak, to one degree or another. This is why it is vital for us to remember one of love’s most important keys—forgiveness. 

Forgiveness doesn’t mean that what’s happened in the past was right or that those who have hurt us are off the hook, but it does mean it’s out of your heart. It releases us from the past so that we can freely enter a good future.

What future is that, you ask? Isaiah 60:1,7 tells us, “Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you...and I will glorify the house of My glory.” 

Your future and the future of your marriage is that God wants to glorify you and make you the example marriage on your block, so that everyone will wonder what you have figured out that they need. 

All this will happen, but only when we make our lives about love. What is your life about today? 

Prayer 

Lord Jesus, 

You are the God of love and I am Your child. I choose to forgive those who have hurt me and ask that You would heal my heart so that I can freely love as You created me to do. 

Amen

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this is taken from 06 February 2017. it ties into the one above.

06 February 2017

Evening

FACE TO FAITH:

Ruth 4:13-14 NASB

[13] So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. [14] Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed is the LORD who has not left you without a redeemer today, and may his name become famous in Israel.

Life is better when God is King. I mean, it just makes sense, because if God is King then He’s in charge, so He looks out for us because we belong to Him. 

The story of Ruth is a great story to help us understand how powerful it is when we make God the King over our lives. In a nutshell, Ruth marries into a family that did not make God King. Without God as King, they had to look out for themselves and it didn’t work out well. In fact, all the men—three husbands total, including Ruth’s—died. 

Well, if you want a different result then you have to try a different way, and Naomi and Ruth do just that. They made God King over their hearts, following Him wholeheartedly. They made Him King over their plans and futures. They made Him King over their needs, following Him to the right fields for gleaning and the right man to marry. 

Now, with Ruth having followed God as King in all of these things, Boaz (the right guy) also makes God King. He follows the right procedures God had set up in order to marry Ruth and the two are married. In all this, they make God King over their home and marriage. 

God’s got a thing about marriage and absolutely wants it to be honored in us within this culture and society as much as He honors it in His Word. And marriage is honored in His Word. A marriage bed is to be honored and not defiled. And here, they take that example of allowing God’s way to become King over their home, over their marriage, over their plans, over all that He has now led them to accept and believe by faith. 

And guess what happens. As soon as they get married, Ruth conceives and bears a son. Can I just remind you of the miracle of that verse? She’s been married before. In fact, she was married for ten years and never got pregnant—she has been barren her whole life. And all of a sudden, she meets Boaz and, upon this marital conception, is now with child and seeing the blessing of this covenant in allowing God to be King over this relationship. 

I hope today that you are allowing God to be King over your relationships. Because if you are, there are blessings to receive, my friends, just as God blessed Ruth. 

Prayer 

Lord God, 

Thank You for giving me the story of Ruth to encourage me about the blessings of letting You be King! Please come today and be my King forever; lead me and give me the courage to follow You in all things! 

Amen