Originally posted at: http://applyingmybeliefs.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/the-i-wills/
By Applying My Beliefs
When I talk with a young (or sometimes older) couple I often bring this up:
Eph 2:10 – For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. ESV
Then I might say something like this:
Every person created is God’s workmanship, all of us on the planet are His masterpieces, we are all made exactly as He decided, created by Him and for Him. So, as you look at each other right now, in this moment, say quietly in your mind that “my life’s partner is created just as God wanted him or her.” Then let us recognize that God’s word says that we were created for good works that God had in mind for us before the universe was made. The most important good work that any believer can do in their marriage is to treat their spouse as a God-created person, a child of the most high. When you get in front of Jesus, which we all will, whether we believe in Him or not, he might ask, how many mission trips you went on or how much money you gave to the church or how many people you spoke to about Christ. But this is the big marriage question that you will have to answer:
• How did you treat your spouse?
I might then ask a couple if they want to know how to treat each other the way God intends; and this is what I tell them: “Here is my suggestion on how to do that.”
I’m going to read 1 Cor 13:4-8, sometimes known as the love passage, and from it I’m going to draw a series of choices you can make that will help you have a godly marriage. I call these the “I wills” for these are not just choices, but promises you can make to each other.
1 Cor 13:4-8 – Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
And here are the “I wills” we can extract from these verses:
• I will be patient with you.
• I will be kind to you.
• I will not be envious of you.
• I will not boast about myself to you.
• I will not be arrogant toward you.
• I will not be rude to you.
• I will not insist on my own way.
• I will not be irritable with you.
• I will not resent you.
• I will not rejoice when you are wrong.
• I will rejoice when you live into truth.
• I will put up with your strange ways.
• I will always believe in you.
• I will always hope for the best for you.
• I will endure the worst for you.
• My love for you will not end.
As we hear this list, let us be well aware that it is impossible to keep this list unless God is in the marriage. The scriptures say that God is love, and that all love flows from Him into us through His Holy Spirit and out toward others.
So then, if you practice the “I Wills”, relying on God’s love to give you the power to actually do them, your marriage will be able to withstand the trouble that this fallen world will throw at you.