God’s design for marriage is one of sacrificial love and commitment. When a husband and wife look to put the needs of the other above their own, to be committed to believing the best about one another and looking for ways to be an agent of healing in the broken areas of the life of their spouse, then that marriage will be strong, united, and loving.

This reflects God’s desire for a relationship with us, as He is committed to loving us with a sacrificial love, putting our needs above His own, laying down His life for our wellbeing and benefit. In response to that kind of love, God desires for us to love Him back. The way a husband desires his wife to love him as he sacrifices and loves her, and vice versa. This is a reflection of the Trinitarian love that exists between Father, Son, and Spirit.

It is most often fear that causes us to chase after the alluring, but false, promises of our idols. We all have a “functional hell,” a place we don’t want our lives to go, that we want to escape. Idols like money, power, sex, pleasure, comfort, security promise to deliver that escape through things like relationships, job titles, material wealth, acceptance, etc. None of those things are inherently sinful or evil, but when we listen to the false promises and half-truths of the enemy about those things, then we tend to let a good thing become a god thing and lure our hearts away from the heart of God. We end up worshipping creation instead of Creator. All because fear grips our hearts and in response we go looking for a savior.

But, if we will trust God’s love for us as displayed and proven in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, then fear has not place to make its home in our hearts. When the threat of poverty or lack screams at us, the fact that God is our provider speaks back. When the threat of loneliness or isolation screams at us, the fact that God says He will never leave us or forsake us speaks back. When the threat of being on the underside of power screams at us, the fact that the One who is the Author of power is also our loving Father speaks back. There is no threat of fear that the nearness of God cannot overcome. And the Gospel proves that point. It is when we rest in our identity in Christ, as the chosen and beloved sons and daughters of God, that all of our “functional hells” lose their power to threaten us.

But, this Truth can be difficult for some to receive because of either a lack of trust in God, or a lack of humility ourselves. We tend to look at our weaknesses, our past failures, our wrong motives, and think that either God’s love is not strong enough to overcome those things, or that because of those things we are not worthy of the love God wants to give us. The former claims that my sin is stronger than God’s love, while the latter claims that my judgement is more righteous than God’s judgement.