Leading in Love

I have been greatly affected recently by listening to the Sanctus Real song "Lead Me", and not just listening, but hearing the words of it. As I hear to the lyrics I understand more of what it is to lead my family as God has asked me to do. As husband to my wife and father to my daughter it is my responsibility to lead them in their walk with God. I am to show them God's love and forsake the things that would prevent me from doing so. One particular verse of this song that I like is when he is praying to God and says, "Don't want to leave them, hungry for love, chasing things, that I should give up." A lot of what God has been teaching me lately has to deal with giving things up so that I can better glorify Him and serve Him better. What better way for me to serve God than to lead my wife and daughter to Him for His glory?

To lead, as the song tells, requires us first to be strong. As men of God we understand that our own strength often fails us. The only strength that we can rely on is the strength of God. To be able to stand against all trials and to lead with strength requires the Lord. We must grow in our understanding of God and to increase our faith of Him to have the strength to endure and the wisdom to lead. The next part of the song teaches us that we need to lead with love. As God tells us in Ephesians5:25 we are to love our wives as Christ loves the church. This means we cannot lead them in a way that doesn't contain love, we need to be humble in correcting them and make sure that above all else that they feel love in all the ways that we lead. We also need to make sure that nothing keeps us from leading them. If we lust for things of this world our love will go towards these things and not towards our family. If this happens it can be devastating for a family, I am reminded of the movie Fireproof where the main character is so obsessed with the boat that he wants that he neglects the relationship with his wife. This leads him in other directions as well, the more you desire something else the farther you walk from your family and also from God. You see, with our family as our focus we then desire God more. As a Christian I am unable to properly love without God, I need His love to love others. The more I desire to love my family and to show them how much I love them the more I desire God and His love so that my love may be more genuine. For God displayed the greatest of all love for us through His Son, who laid down His life for us, His entire life, that we would not suffer for our iniquities but instead be restored unto God and have the great promise of eternal life with Him. This is our example, and what does it cost us to lay aside all that we desire when we think upon what He did for us in order that we may better love as He has called us to do?

God's Plan

His saving work be done,

So God sent man His Son.

Faithful in all His walk,

Never with slanderous talk,

That He would perfect be,

To set the sinner free.

Washed by the blood of Christ,

For through His sacrifice,

The sinner is made clean,

And shows the savior's sheen.

So let us live today,

Remembering His way.

To Him we give our all,

And heed to His great call,

To save all those we can,

By showing them this Man.

Our Everything

In 2Corinthians1:20 it says that all of God's promises find their Yes in Jesus Christ. It is in Him, the Son of God that all of God's promises are made to be true for us as believers. It is in this reality that we can find our comfort, for our lives are unsure and our way is with many struggles, but Jesus walked the way for us and so in this knowledge we have a great assurance of the many promises of God. The richest treasures in the world can not compare to this understanding, to know that we have an unbreakable promise from God for our eternal life. So great is this promise that all other things in life dim in comparison. Why do we need the things of this world when we think of all that we have in Christ? He is our everything.

It is this knowledge that can make it easier for us to commit all to God for the sake of the gospel. There is nothing for us to lose when we already have all that is promised to us. We can commit all that we have in this world to further the gospel and know that we will not be wanting because we already have it all. If God asks of us to give some thing in this world, we should be willing to give it. If there is something getting in the way of our work for Him then we can give it up because we know that there is much greater for us that will come when the Lord returns.

Oh, thank you Lord for this knowledge, this gift from your word! To know that we have all your promises through Christ who has purchased us with His blood. What a comfort for us to know that it isn't our work that brings us Your promises but Christ's work, so that we are not lacking to receive from You the wonderful goodness of your promises. Lord, help us to grow in this, to take it to heart, to commit all to you for it is worth nothing compared to what you have already given us. Lord, even in our trials when the world says we should despair bring us comfort in the wonderful knowledge of Christ's work on our behalf.