Need For Christ

Everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

Romans 3:23

I honestly did not fully realize I was a sinner until I got married! I had been a churchgoer all of my life and had accepted Christ at an early age. I tried to do the right things by following the Ten Commandments. I certainly hadn’t murdered anyone or stolen anything!

I thought I was pretty clean. But the reality was that I actually looked better on the outside than I was on the inside. Literally, the week after our honeymoon ended, I had a fit when I didn’t get my own way. I marched into my husband, Mark’s, office, where he seemed to be hiding from my high expectations and pushed all the books off his top bookshelf, exclaiming, “You made me a mean person. I was not mean until I married you!” I wince every time I think about it; I still can’t believe I said that.

I love Vance Havner’s expression, “What’s down in the well comes up in the bucket.” My selfishness reared its ugly head that day. I was not aware that it was residing in my heart. It just took a few weeks of living with an “until death do us part” husband to bring it out in me. As hard as those early years were in our marriage, I am grateful for them because I was drawn to my need for Christ. To this day, no one can get my dander up like my husband, but he is the very one God has used the most to nurture me to grow in Christ!

If you have not recognized your need for Christ, reread “the love list” from 1 Corinthians 13, which I wrote about on February 4. These verses reveal our need for Christ and are a beautiful reminder that He is the only One who loves us perfectly!