Walking With Christ

Far too often, I hear of long-term relationships failing because they wake up one day and realize that they don’t know the person next to them in the bed. They can’t point to any specific moment when things fell apart. It was just a long, slow decline. It was a long series of small steps that led each one in a different direction. Then, one day, as if waking from an unpleasant dream, they realize that they don’t know the person they are with.

It’s a story that I hear far too often. Most people wonder how this could happen while, at the same time, saying that it could never happen to them. How does a relationship go from hot, steamy, hands-all-over-each-other, embarrassing to everyone else, can’t stand to be apart, burning, passionate love to living in a house with a complete stranger with a familiar face? It’s a lot easier to do than most people can imagine. For most, the answer is that life gets in the way. It’s the dull daily routine combined with the pressure to have full lives outside of the relationship. It’s the fractal drama that divides houses through high stress that requires one or both partners work harder or for more hours away from the home. It’s the slow breakdown in communication that comes with apathy and finally feeling secure in a relationship. It’s taking the trust built up on being reliable for granted. Life gets in the way.

What stands in the way of having that burning passion for this relationship that was once so embarrassing for everyone else to be around? Gentlemen, what stops you from looking at your bride with the same all-consuming passion that you once had? What’s preventing you from seeing her as your greatest prize, your greatest gift, your greatest friend? Ladies, what is stopping you from looking at your husband like a king? What is preventing you from seeing him as your confidant, your biggest helper, your greatest gift, your best friend?

Apathy. Life gets in the way. Shift your priorities and re-ignite that passion that made other people feel uncomfortable because they had never felt anything like that. There is no reason for a relationship to die this slow and very preventable death.

How is this message a verse of the day message?

It’s possible to be around a person your entire life and simply not know who they are. It’s possible to live in the same house and even share the most intimate parts of your life with that person and not know who they are. You can see them every day but not really know them. You can even look in the mirror and not really know who is looking back at you.

God is everywhere. He is in every thing. God is in the atoms that make up all matter and He is in the spaces between. He is that close. Yet, it’s possible to go your entire life and not truly know Him.

Matthew 7:22-23 (22)On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ (23)And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’(ESV)

John 1:10-11 (10)He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. (11)He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.(ESV)

Father,
We are made in Your image. We thank You for the good works that You have done. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. It is glorious that this is so. By Your own hands everything we know and are was made. Yet, we do not truly know You. You have revealed Yourself to us through the very rocks we walk on and our own faces we see in the mirror. You have lived among us and shown us Your full glory through Your son, Jesus Christ. He has given us a multitude of examples of Your nature and Your true love for us even though we were sinners. You have made a way for us to know You and You show us immeasurable patience and grace as we stumble down the clear, straight, path that You have laid out for us. You make a way. We praise Your holy name and rejoice that You have a plan for us. We pray, Lord, that You continue to work in us and through us for the glory of Your kingdom.

In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.