We started The Love Dare (by Stephen and Alex Kendrick) at 1Peter3Living. If you feel led to do this book, I encourage you to do it either on your own or with us at 1Peter3Living. Already, God is opening doors and sending a clear message that He intends to use this book in a mighty way in many unequally yoked marriages.
Right off the start an integral theme of sacrificial love is very apparent. And necessary. I believe there is no greater refiner than marriage to bring us to the point of "losing our life" as Christ speaks of in Luke 17:33 (see also Matthew 10:39, Mark 8:35 and John 12:25).
God is calling us to quit living for ourselves, to quit putting ourselves and our own needs in first place, to give up our rights for the benefit of someone else.
That's sacrificial love.
And for marriage, any marriage, to work, that's what it takes. Are you willing to give up your right to be right? Are you willing to give up your right to self-justification in exchange for Godly justification? Are you willing to let go of the pain of the past in order to find hope again, and a future based in love? Are you willing to run the race to the end so that you can stand in front of Christ and hear "well done my good and faithful servant?"
Jesus is our greatest example of sacrificial love. He set aside his needs, wants, and desires to save us. He set aside his life, literally. He did it for us.
I believe God is calling us to make this step toward sacrificial love not just for our spouses sake, but in obedience to Him. It's a tall calling, one I believe we are worthy of. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:15–17:
God has called us to live in peace. How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him.
Mordecai asked Esther, "And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"
We've been called to a mission of sacrificial love in such a time as this. And It's not about us.
It's about God.
Praying and believing,
Dineen
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