Tag: God Can Restore All Things (Even Your Marriage)

‘Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.’ 1 Corinthians 13:4-7(NLT)

‘For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body. As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.’ Ephesians 5:22-33(NLT)

In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Paul reminds us that God has a specific design and vision for love, and through the power of the Spirit, we can live out the vision with one another.

When we look at this vision of love, we see that love focuses on practices that benefit the receiver of the love. As one person loves in kindness and patience while resisting arrogance, rudeness, and resentfulness, the person receiving that love will benefit. If both people in the relationship can join in God’s vision of love, they will constantly be serving each other, meaning that both people will receive the service from the other as well.  

The same cycle is true in Ephesians 5. Wives submit their lives to their husbands and husbands give up their lives for their wives. This constant sacrifice and reward system allows both people to serve the other endlessly. It is completely selfless, but everyone benefits. Perhaps this is what Paul meant by “outdoing one another in showing honor”(Romans 12:10).

While this may sound simple in theory, it can be so hard to live this out. We can’t do it on our own. We need the power of Christ in us. He has modeled this type of sacrificial love perfectly for us, and scripture tells us that with him, all things are possible. 

When you experience the impossibility of loving another flawed human being in the way that God calls us to love one another, look to Christ as your example. When you feel like you’ve tried everything and your spouse just won’t return your love, hold on to the wonderful love given to you through Christ. He laid his life down for His people, for you. Now, we respond by submitting our lives to Him, and we get to reap the wonderful rewards that come with His sacrifice.

Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we have His power in us to live out His vision for love in our relationships, our friendships, and most importantly, our marriages. In the midst of trials and hard times when you think there’s no hope, remember that Christ makes the impossible possible. Look to Him and follow in His ways.

from God Can Restore All Things (Even Your Marriage)

‘This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. ‘ 1 John 1:5-9(NLT)

‘Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. ‘ Galatians 6:1-2(NLT)

While God is the source and model of restoration, He invites us to participate in his restorative plans for humanity. He gives us the Holy Spirit so that we can have the power and tools to actively seek restoration in our daily lives and in your marriage.

Even if we believe this truth, it’s easy to forget it. Maybe you’ve experienced the same kind of tension Paul writes about in Romans 7. “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate”(7:15). We love God, and we want to serve Him, but we often continue to sin, ignoring His Spirit and His guidance. 

Luckily, the all-knowing God knew this would be the case, and He established practices that help us continually set our minds on God’s Spirit and enable us to see more clearly how we can participate in His plans or restoration. 

Through prayer, our hearts are aligned to God’s and we begin to share His vision for the world. In confession, we see our own shortcomings and transgressions more clearly, giving us a greater appreciation for His love towards us and empowering us to practice that same kind of love and forgiveness to others. Through community, God uses our brothers and sisters in Christ to bear each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2).

While you work through this difficult time in your life, recognize that you are not alone and that you are not helpless. God listens and cares. He wants to hear your prayers, forgive your sins, and use other people in your community to help you through your hardship. Even more, He wants to invite you to participate in His work of restoration.

As you read today’s passages, look for how these people practiced prayer, confession of sin, and living in community to better understand God’s restorative work in their lives.

from God Can Restore All Things (Even Your Marriage)

‘We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us. And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety.
Paul’s Change of Plans
We can say with confidence and a clear conscience that we have lived with a God-given holiness and sincerity in all our dealings. We have depended on God’s grace, not on our own human wisdom. That is how we have conducted ourselves before the world, and especially toward you. ‘ 2 Corinthians 1:8-12(NLT)

‘For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.’ Romans 6:4-11(NLT)

God giving His son as a demonstration of perfect love is part of His grand plan for restoring and redeeming all of creation. All throughout scripture, we see how God brings dead things to life and heals brokenness. He has the power to restore all things, including your marriage. Restoration is part of His nature. 

In the book of Genesis, we read about Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery and how God restores that situation by eventually putting Joseph in a high-ranking government position. While Joseph faces various types of adversity, he also recognizes that God worked out a way to save his family in a time of famine. Joseph realizes that even though his brothers meant to do something evil, “God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today”(Genesis 50:20). In a beautiful demonstration of grace, Joseph not only forgives his brothers, but he saves their lives and invites them into his new home in Egypt. 

The New Testament is full of similar stories of restoration. When Jesus hears that Lazarus died, He goes to the grave and raises him to life (John 11:1-46). He also raises a widow’s son (Luke 7:11-17) and a man named Jairus’ daughter (Luke 8:49-56) from the dead. 

The best example of Christ’s work of restoration, though, is His own resurrection. Not only did he defeat physical death for himself, He also made a way for His people to once again be reconciled to Him. We can now pursue Him and have a relationship with Him, joining in on the mission to renew all things to His original design.

If God can bring restoration in all these places, He has the power to restore broken marriages, heal pain, and bring life where it seems impossible. While you read these stories of God’s restorative nature, rejoice in the reality that the same God works in your life too.

from God Can Restore All Things (Even Your Marriage)

‘Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first. If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.’ 1 John 4:7-21(NLT)

‘When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. ‘ Romans 5:6-9(NLT)

We often allow non-Christian ideas to shape our vision for love, don’t we? 

Romantic comedies, romance stories, and similar narratives give us plenty of false ideas, but the Bible lays out the truest example of perfect love. 

1 John 4 gives us a picture of how God exemplified His love by giving His son to die for us. “The love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him”(1 John 4:9). 

God sacrificed. He suffered for our sake, and now we can live through Him. 

This sacrificial, selfless demonstration helps us see what true love looks like, and the greatest part is that because of His sacrificial love, we get to live through Him. In verse 8, John tells us that God is love, so knowing God allows us to know the truest form of love.

Notice the order of love in verse 10: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The greatest demonstration of love is that Christ loved us first. Paul highlights this even more in Romans 5:6-9 when he reminds us that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. We did not deserve the love and sacrifice of God, but He gave it to us anyway in a beautiful act of grace.  

As you read the passages for today, seek to understand the perfect love of God. In difficult times, hold on to His love for you and look for ways that you can practice the sacrificial, humble love that He models for us. 

from God Can Restore All Things (Even Your Marriage)

‘When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.’ Isaiah 43:2(NLT)

‘Your unfailing love, O Lord , is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds.’ Psalms 36:5(NLT)

‘We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you. But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.’ 2 Corinthians 4:7-15(NLT)

You likely have come across this study because of trials in your marriage. Of course, we don’t know the exact situation that brought you here, but we do know that God is with you in the midst of your pain. 

This is the excellent reality of the God that we serve and worship: he does not shy away from our pain nor does he just leave us to deal with it alone. God enters into our pain, coming alongside us and helping us fight our battles.

In His incarnation, Jesus stepped down from Heaven to take on our sin, and He continues to do so through the power of His Holy Spirit alive in us as believers. 

But what does all this have to do with your marriage, with your very real and present pain today?

That’s exactly what this study will address. We will look at how God is in the midst of restoring His creation back to His original design for marriage and love. Over the next few days, we will look at how He exemplifies perfect love, how He goes about restoring broken things, and how He equips and empowers us to participate in His redemption through love. As we dive into the word of God, pray that God will transform your heart and draw you closer to Him. A relationship with Him has the power to truly restore your brokenness and bring healing to your pain. 

Today, rest in the reality that God is with you in your trials and in your pain. Read these passages of scripture that show just how much His faithfulness endures.

from God Can Restore All Things (Even Your Marriage)