Lily & Chris Wedding

Love & Faithfulness

Lily & Chris, today you begin your married life together. But today is not the beginning of your relationship, it is but one step on the journey, however there is a huge difference. Today, before God, before your family & friends, you surrender yourselves to each other, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, you continue walking together in love and faithfulness.

You’ll recall that in your marriage classes, way back at the first one, we talked about three kinds of love: friendship love, emotional love, and commitment love. You need all three, but today, today and this passage is about the third one. Today you surrender, you commit to loving one another. Today you declare to each other, that you will sacrifice everything for each other.

This means, there will come times, Chris, when you will have to sacrifice hanging out with the guys and spend time with Lily. Date nights, special occasions, obligations to both families will require sacrifices! Turning off the TV when Lily needs to talk.

Lily, there may come a time when, in the interest of your physical well-being, you might have to sacrifice playing with the cows in the feedlot.

B

Love and faithfulness go together, like two sides to one coin. Bind them around your neck, thinking of the neck as the conduit between your heart and your head. Let love and faithfulness guide your thinking, and your heart connections. Be careful, critical and intentional about what you allow into your life, choosing only that which promotes your love for each other and faithfulness to each other.

Favour & Respect

If you put these things into practice, it will be evident for all to see. Just the other day, someone mentioned how the demands of the job they were in results in a high divorce rate. Your passage says that even if your friends mock you for your loving faithfulness to each other, they will respect you. God has given you an opportunity to demonstrate to everyone around you, not only your love for each other, but also your love for God.

As the next verse shows, the respect and favour comes as a result of God’s love in you first and foremost. We love, because God first loved us. Your love for each other will only be as strong as you allow God’s love to be poured out into you. Remain connected to God through prayer, worship, daily scripture reading.

Trust

The age-old temptation of trusting ourselves has been around since Adam and Eve. We know how well it worked for them, but we still have a tendency to think, “It’ll be different for me, I’m a smart person.” The fact of the matter is that God really, truly knows best. God created you, he’s brought you together and he knows what’s best.

Trust in the Lord, fully, completely. He will never let you down. Don’t lean on yourself, your own strength, intellect, wisdom. That’s not to say you’re not smart. I spent quite a few hours with you both, you’re brilliant! But if you compared what you know and understand with what God knows and understands, well to quote the Princess Bride, you’d be morons.

Lean, rest in, draw strength from, be supported by God. Trust him in everything. Pray over every decision. He will lead you, as you follow him.

Follow

As you go about your new married life together. You’ve been working like crazy on your new home. You’ve been investing all kinds of time and energy in preparation for this incredibly awesome day. You’ve been praying, committing your lives to Christ and to each other.

Keep doing that! Keep Christ as your focus. In all your future plans, include Jesus. I don’t mean this in a trite or silly way, like: “Jesus, what Blizzard should I get from Dairy Queen.” Not to say that Jesus isn’t interested in what you eat at DQ, rather that he’s given you a certain amount of wisdom. He’s already given you the wisdom to know his Word, his commandments. From them, you can determine the way you should go. When big decisions need to be made, consult with Jesus. Acknowledge his Lordship over your life and he will prepare the way for you.

Now, the way the Lord will take you will be the best way to grow you to love him, and love each other more. He will put dangers, struggles, storms, joys and fantastic moments in your path, all will serve to bless you, and encourage you to trust him even more.

Bind yourself to love and faithfulness. They will earn you favour and respect, not only with God, but also with people. Trust in God and follow him. Amen.