Preemptive Grace
Theme of the Week: A Grace-Filled Marriage
Friday, February 12, 2010
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: Clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. (Colossians 3:12) Bonus Reading: Colossians 3:13-14
When I don't believe the best in my spouse, when I don't accept and celebrate her for who she is, I develop an ongoing irritation that becomes infectious. And I begin to associate her with everything that's painful and unhealthy.
Instead, I need to nurture ongoing forgiveness that allows me to love and accept her, while letting go of her humanness and what isn't developed or matured yet. I know my wife will do things that irritate me. She's not trying to annoy me. I'm just sensitive in those areas.
As for my own issues, I've worked for 23 years on them and they're not any better. And my wife keeps extending grace, and God keeps extending grace and convicting. And I keep working. But I couldn't—or wouldn't—work on them as intentionally if my wife didn't treat me as though she believed that I could grow.
Spend time asking God if you exhibit grace and forgiveness toward your spouse. Ask him to help you exhibit those qualities in your life and marriage, remembering that God loved us so much, that even before we were born, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God carried a strong preemptive grace and forgiveness toward us. Should we not offer the same to our spouses?
—Michael Sytsma in Marriage Partnership
My Response: I could demonstrate "preemptive grace" toward my wife today by …
Thought to Apply: There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love —Bryant H. McGill (editor, writer)
Adapted from our sister publication Marriage Partnership (Fall/2008) by permission. All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher. May not be reproduced. To read the entire article upon which this week's devotionals are based, go to intimatemarriage.org/grace.
Copyright © 2010 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
 share this page
Dear heavenly Father, your grace is great! Without it I am forever lost. Empower me to extend grace to my wife because you have extended immeasurable grace to me.
Men of Integrity
Connect with God | Transform my Mind | Live by His Power
Relate Better | Make an Impact
Home | Archives | Contact Us
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Try an Issue of Men of Integrity
Free!
|
 |
|
No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for International orders.
If you decide you want to keep Men of Integrity coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive five more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless.
Give Men of Integrity as a gift
Buy 1 gift subscription, get 1 FREE!
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
| 
RSS Feed
