A Spectacle Of Glory #195

Read: 1 Corinthians 13:4

If you’re shopping for an anniversary this month, you’ll find a large selection of beautiful, expensive cards describing your spouse as the most virtuous, fault-free, brave, and lovely person on the planet. But the truth is—can I say this in print?—it’s often difficult to love your spouse. This is precisely why 1 Corinthians 13, the famous love chapter in Scripture, begins its list of attributes with the words “love is patient.” For the Christian celebrating decades of marriage—or just getting married—it’s not about passion and romance; it’s about patience in sickness and health, in wealth and want, for better or for worse. What’s more, in any relationship, God asks you to show patience with others’ shortcomings, to display mercy toward them, to release them from meeting all your righteous expectations, to bear with their weaknesses, and to not be itching to correct them. The fact is, when you love someone with patience, you love them as God loves you.

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your patient love for me through the years. You love me when I am unlovable. You watch over me when I am preoccupied with myself. You forgive me when I commit the same old tiresome sins right after I have confessed them. I don’t know how else to say it, but help me to love like You do.