The love of God is truly amazing toward us and He wants the love in our marriages to be amazing to rightly reflect His Love. How are we doing?

National Family Retreat 2019: A Heart of Love

<p>The love of God is truly amazing toward us and He wants the love in our marriages to be amazing to rightly reflect His Love. How are we doing?</p>

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Restoration International

Alane Waters

Tom Waters

Amazing Love

So we want to talk about amazing love this morning, are you excited about that?

We are so excited about this Because to us in our marriage our love is becoming more Amazing and you know how that happens It happens because of the amazing love of our Father in heaven and the love of Jesus Christ reflected to us.

Now we have no trouble imagining that this kind of love is amazing.

You know that song, and can it be, how can it be that this God could die for me?

I don't think we, I know we don't appreciate it like we should, but nobody here in this room today would argue with me that this love is amazing love, Right?

Now, do you think that our marriages can be amazing love marriages?

Because that love that God has for us is meant to be reflected in our love for each other.

I want to share with you a reference here in the book of Desire of Ages that was quite profound and I'm sure most of you or many, how many have read the book Desire of Ages?

That's a beautiful book on the life of Christ.

I think that's probably also 1 of these booths back here.

But if you haven't read that, we would strongly encourage you to read that book because for me that was a turning point in my Christian experience.

I mean, my parents raised me, but for the personal connection to get a glimpse and a picture of who Christ was, who God is, just so that I could understand it better.

That book was very profound in our experience, and as a couple as well.

When we were going through some real struggles, that book was the study that we used together And it helped to create this oneness, this unbrokenness in our relationship.

In both the Old and the New Testament, so what's the conclusion of that part of the statement?

In the entire Bible, both the Old and the New Testament, the marriage relation is employed to represent the tender and sacred union that exists between husband and wife and between Christ and his people so that's what it says I put the husband and wife here it that that exists between Christ and his people so it is the marriage relationship that is to represent what the relationship between Christ and us And it used 2 words here to describe what that relationship looks like.

I want you to think about your marriage and if it has that tenderness and that sacredness between your hearts as a husband and wife.

Because it's this relationship that is to be the number 1 witness to this world that we live in about that amazing love that God has.

Because it is being experienced and reflected through the amazing love that God can do between a man and a woman who are very different.

Unfortunately, in our own marriage and in many marriages, what ends up happening instead of this deep, tender, sacred connection that God wants to have with us.

Being here in our marriage, unfortunately what often happens is it's a complacent, you hear That word, complacent, kind of business as usual, and a taking for granted.

Now is it possible that if that's what's happening in many marriages, and I'm not asking if it's happening, I'm telling you that it's happening.

And we've been working in our own marriage for 39 years.

And we've worked with hundreds of marriages in the last 30 years.

And I'm telling you that in a group like this today, that the vast majority, and this is not an indictment against any of us, it's just a reality.

The vast majority of the marriages in this auditorium today are not experiencing the amazing love that God wants us to have.

We're experiencing too often a complacency, Not a tender and sacred union that is so tightly knit together, but a business as usual, surviving the day kind of marriage that is taking for granted the love of our life.

The love of our life Because we live in a very busy world This is not amazing love, but God wants to make our marriages Amazing love marriages so that there can be a better connection between other human beings that we come in contact with about the love of God.

It's the only relationship on earth that has the privilege that can fully, as fully as a human being can, can actually exemplify what amazing love looks like so people can say, that's a little bit of what God loves us like.

That's what they need to be seeing in our marriages, friends.

And we've had all kinds of struggles in our marriage.

And those of you that have been here For a long time or been at the retreats.

They've been going on for 25 years You've heard most of our stories pretty vulnerably But I tell you today that we have more and more amazing love in our marriage because we grow it almost every day intentionally.

And you know, it's another call to the relationship with God.

Is he reaching out to us intentionally every day?

And sometimes it's taking him for granted, right?

Sometimes it's pushed and pressed and we don't feel like it or we don't have time or this is, this is, I got to do this now.

And if we want to be intentional about our relationship with God, We need to make choices to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.

And if we want to have amazing love in our marriages, which we can have and we are growing it, then we need to be intentional about making that marriage relationship the most important relationship on earth under Christ.

Absolutely, and I hope that you want it to happen for you.

We shouldn't be complacent, we shouldn't just settle in and think that okay we're not doing too bad, we do love each other and then we get along most of the time.

I tell you, the more our love grows for each other, the more burden and passion we have to try to encourage others how great this is.

And you know, 1 of the questions I asked my husband recently, which is a very heartfelt question, why is it that so many people are just content where they are in the relationship?

Why is it that we are just satisfied with what we come to to experience on a day-to-day basis that just life is just kind of, you know, we're just rolling it out on a regular blase, nothing changes, there's nothing exciting, there's nothing new, there's nothing.

And friends, if we are not intentionally growing our love, we are unintentionally seeing it slip.

And for many people, and this is where we get the 911 calls, you know, not the...

We were with a couple and and they were on the brink of separation there was so much pain hurt tension anger bitterness on both sides of in the relationship And the wife is pouring out her heart.

She wants to believe her husband loves and cares for her.

And as we sat and we visited and we talked with him And we looked at him, he said, well, you know, the problem is, I just never, ever saw my dad ever be tender toward my mother.

I never heard him say sweet things to her.

And I sat there and I listened and I actually interrupted after listening for a few minutes because it kept going on and on of all the things and all the reasons why he couldn't love his wife to meet her needs.

And I said to him, excuse me I just have 1 question for you.

Before you were married did you ever take her hand as a girlfriend?

And before you were married did you ever put your arm around her and let her know that she was special to you?

And did you ever tell her how much she meant to you and that you loved her and that she was the most special person in the world.

Because you knew what you had to do in order to get what you wanted.

I was sitting back listening to her say this and I thought, that's God, that's amazing.

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Amazing Love

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