Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – January 22, 2016
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Genesis 2:24
Growing relationships require regular investments of emotional energy. Because humans have the capacity for emotional engagement, there is a level of feeling and understanding that machines or animals can never attain. God’s creation—created in His image—is able to engage in intimate encounters. Emotions are meant to move people toward the eternal.
Marriage especially demands growing emotional intelligence to thrive and not merely survive. The Lord has created an emotional vacuum within a husband and within a wife that only their spouse can fill. It is folly to seek to meet this very real need with work or the children, for false substitutes only stunt emotional maturity in marriage. One flesh means to forge an alliance and an allegiance between our mind, our will and our emotions.
“It [love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:7).
Are you becoming one with the one with whom Jesus united you in holy matrimony? The wedding of passion is only a step into life’s foyer. You have a lifetime to explore the multiple rooms of feelings within your marriage bond. You make emotional investments into your marriage as you begin to understand his or her needs. Are attention, security and communication her top three needs? Does he deeply desire respect, encouragement and affection? God gives you wisdom so that you can really come to know your spouse.
As when you take the time to invest money and save for the future, so you wisely prepare when you take time to invest emotionally into your marriage. Emotional deposits today will bear the fruit of becoming one tomorrow. Otherwise, you will grow old apart, rather than together. First, by faith become one with Christ and secondly, with love, patience and understanding, become one with each other. Emotional investments today pay the dividends of oneness tomorrow. Your oneness in marriage illustrates your faith in Christ.
“We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love you have for one another is increasing” (2 Thessalonians 1:3).
Prayer: Lord, what do I need to know about my spouse, so that they feel loved and accepted by me?
Related Readings: Galatians 5:13; Hebrews 12:3, 15; 1 Peter 2:2; 2 Peter 3:18
Post/Tweet this today: Marriage requires growing emotional intelligence to thrive and not merely survive. #emotionalintimacy #WisdomHunters
Worship Resource: 6 minute video – Bethel: Who Can Compare
Today’s reading is taken from Boyd’s newest devotional book Two Minutes in the Bible for Men. Order now!
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