Gary L. Thomas - A Lifelong Love: A Marriage Journal

Belle City Gifts
Racine, WI 53403

Belle City Gifts is an imprint of the BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
www.broadstreetpublishing.com

A LIFELONG LOVE

Devotional Journal

By Gary Thomas with Nathanael White

Inspired by A Lifelong Love: What If Marriage Is about More Than Just Staying Together? By Gary Thomas (Oct. 1, 2014, David C. Cook)

2015 Gary Thomas

ISBN-13: 9781424549689
ISBN: 9781424550425 (e-book)

All Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Cover and interior design by Garborg Design Works, Inc. | www.garborgdesign.com

Printed in China

Many waters
cannot quench love;
rivers cannot
sweep it away.

S ONG OF S ONGS 8:7

B ooker T. Washington was born a slave, yet became a surprising political force in the nineteenth century. He believed that when difficulties call out your best, they become stepping-stones instead of roadblocks.

Maybe you feel your marriage is filled with more difficulties than blessings. Perhaps you feel you have nothing to give, that your relationship is stuck in a rut, or that you and your spouse lack what it takes to achieve the happiness you desire.

If thats you, I have good news: Marriage is not about what we have, but about what we do with what we have.

There is always hope. Your marriage, yes yours, can become an inspiration to other couples. Your marriage can become fruitful and fulfilling. Your marriage can become a source of profound joy, rich togetherness, and powerful witness.

I wrote this journal as a tool to help guide you through the process of taking what you havedifficulties or blessingsand turning them into stepping-stones for a lifelong love and a beautiful marriage. The theme for each day is carefully designed with this purpose in mind, beginning with thought-provoking content followed by a powerful question to provide direction as you journal.

This journaling is where you will find transformation. Be honest with yourself. Open your heart freely to God in this process. Allow Him to speak to you and help you. Then begin to apply the simple principles you find on each page.

Step by step, day by day, moment by moment, you will find life and joy growing in your marriage. More than that, you will find greater fulfillment in giving your marriageand your whole lifeto God.

Then, beginning with God lavishing His love on you, your marriage will grow

into A Lifelong Love.

Contents

Marriage is designed by God, a mark of His kindness because He allows us to know the joys of intimacy and family life. Yet even the best of marriages is a miserable substitute for the ultimate reality of living for God. Unless

Unless we have a magnificent obsession, an overriding purpose that ties our days together, gives comfort in the valleys, calls us forward in the suffering, highlights our joy, and even seasons our ecstasies.

Thats what God provides in a marriage based on Him.

If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. J OHN 15:5

What do you think it looks like to have God as your magnificent obsession?

Nothing, not even marriage, can substitute for kingdom life, because thats how God created us. It might be possible to offer five steps to help your marriage be a little less miserable, but nothing can substitute for keeping Gods kingdom first.

Marriage is a lot of wonderful things, but it is not our reason for being. To expect it to become that is to smother it. But when we allow God to be our reason for being and place Him first, it frees our marriages to be filled with the good God desires for them.

Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. M ATTHEW 6:33

Write a letter telling God what you desire for your marriage. How does living for Him affect those desires?

Perhaps you feel you bring a lot to your marriage. Perhaps you feel you bring very little. Either way, when God becomes part of the equation, what we bring doesnt matter anymore. What matters is what He brings.

Three elementsdrawing near to God, pursuing real love, and intentionally pursuing each otherbuild a stable base upon which good marriages grow. They place our hope in God and not in ourselves.

A good marriage isnt about us; its about God and what He brings. Place God at the center of your marriage today.

I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. J EREMIAH 31:3

What does it mean to you that God loves you with an everlasting love?

If your spouse is saved, then God sees them as His child. That makes Him not just your Father, but also your Father-in-Law.

Consider that, and then think about this: How would you feel if a daughter-in-law treated your son the way you treat your husband? Or how would you feel if a son-in-law treated your daughter the way you treat your wife?

I want to be a faithful son-in-law, one who makes God sigh with satisfaction when He watches how I care for and treat my wife, His daughter.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! 1 J OHN 3:1

Write a letter to your present or future son- or daughter-in-law about how you want them to treat your child. Then read the letter to yourself as though God wrote it to you about your spouse.

I used to think I needed to pray for a better marriage until one day God convicted me (through 1 Peter 3:7) that I needed a better marriage so that I can pray.

Look at God through the lens of Father-in-Law to understand this. If a young man came to me, praising me, even giving me ten percent of his income, and all the while I knew he was abusing or neglecting one of my daughters, Id have nothing to say to him except, Hey, start treating my daughter better, and then we can talk.

The integrity of your worship of God depends on you treating your spouse well.

First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. M ATTHEW 5:24

How does it change the way you see your spouse when you remember he or she is Gods child?

If we truly want to love Gods sons and daughters, we have to seek to understand them. Have you ever asked God why your spouse is the way he or she is?

Its true our spouses make mistakes that hurt us. However, we can have empathy for others even while despising what they are doing.

We must be for our spouses as God is for us. Do you realize that in the height of your rebellion against God, He was for you? Thats how God treated you. God simply asks that we give the same grace we have received.

God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. R OMANS 5:8