How do you know your love is the real thing?
The picture above is Carol Amyx and me (David Lewis) early in our marriage. We’ve changed! Mostly, I have changed. Carol still looks awesomely beautiful. As our exterior has aged so has our interior. In fact, our hearts – emotions, thoughts, and conclusions – are in the process of growing up instead of growing old.
I didn’t date a lot in my single life, but I noticed some signals along the way as to whether I should keep the relationship going or move on. Well, ok, some let me know it was time for them to move on. I was the “dumpee” rather than the “dumper”. With Carol and our eventual marriage, I realized the more I was with her, the more I wanted to be with her. I liked and eventually loved the woman she was then and has become.
Now, Carol and I know each other even more deeply. I know many of her hopes, wishes, dreams, likes and dislikes. She knows me better too. Instead of growing apart. We are growing in oneness. I don’t mean “sameness”, since we are still two very different people even after 52 years of marriage.
The beauty of our life in Jesus Christ is that as Carol has matured, her heart is more like Christ’s than ever. I think she would say that about me as well. That’s a good thing because Christ is the exact image of God (but in a body), and God is Love! So, love is the key to the whole thing. John 3:16; John 13:34-35; 1 Peter 1:22; 4:8; 1 John 4:19
Want to know if you are maturing in Christ, then ask yourself this one question, and if you answer it honestly, you will know. Here’s the question:
Today, do I love God and others more as Jesus does than ever before?
If you don’t know how to answer that question and you are brave enough, then ask someone who knows you (observes your life) to answer that question for you. Don’t do that unless you really want to know the truth.
When you get your answer from your self-assessment, assessment from others, or as it is revealed to you by Holy Spirit, make plans to make progress.
Make progress:
1. Pray and ask God to conform you more profoundly into the image of His Son Jesus. He will answer your prayer because that is His will for you. I John 5:14-15
2. Ask a trusted friend to help you see how you are best reflecting Christ and what about you needs some work. Hebrews 10:24
3. Read the Bible, books by trusted authors, or watch Christ-honoring movies about lives lived for Jesus to show you better how to live like Him. Carol and I are having great conversations after watching The Chosen. Philippians 4:7-8
Also, I am reading Tony Dungy’s devotional One Year Uncommon Challenges. Helps me stay focused to do something focused on Jesus daily.
The difference for Carol and me is that we found out, even after we came to faith in Jesus as Savior, that His love for us is even more beautiful, powerful, a treasure worth trading everything for, and the way we are to communicate God’s character to the world… starting with each other.
Since Jesus Christ really came to earth, really lived a sinless life and died to pay for your sins and mine, don’t you think He deserves that we do the one thing He said was most important and the way we’d advertise His life clearly? He said it – then showed it on the cross. But He did not stay in that tomb. He rose to deliver you and me. Let’s live delivered!!!