Love is God's Word

Elizabeth:

Well, after reading some other blogs, apparently it’s a theme that God is lovingly “calling out” some of us with these Love Dare blogs. Of course, I’d just confessed to my women’s accountability group that I struggle with reading the Bible daily when Adam tells me our topic for the blog is “Love is God’s Word”. One day earlier and I would have had smooth sailing with accountability! Doh!

When I try to read my bible in the morning or with Adam, I find myself living out Romans 7:15 in repetitive and frustrating way. “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” It’s actually as if my sinful flesh has a mind of its own and is working against me before I even realize it. I sit down on the couch to read the Bible and suddenly I’m in the kitchen making coffee. I sit again, with renewed focus, and read for a bit, then I’m in the bathroom starting the shower, or in the kitchen unloading the dishwasher, or making a mental grocery list and my spirit self is startled back to conciousness. The sin living in me is strong, especially so when I strive to strengthen my spirit.

Even now, though, I am encouraged by the Spirit. “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” (Romans 7:18) As the war is waging between my body and mind, I have already won with Jesus Christ. I cannot carry it out, but He can. I can faithfully commit to daily reading myself and with Adam, and Jesus will be faithful to the commitment that I make. What a great friend he is to us!

Adam:

It’s easy for me to say that the Bible is God’s word. It’s easy for me to accept it as truth and intellectually assent to it’s validity. I have had experience when the Word of God has changed me, directed me on the right path, and been the only thing that could have helped me in life. This is the sweetness of the word that David talks about in Psalms 119:103.

But there is a commitment of the heart that the Word of God demands that isn’t as easy for me. I can see that reading the Bible is “good” for Elizabeth and me, but when it has been a month since we have read it together, I must ask, “How much do I trust in God speaking to us together through it?”

I must ask “What else has received my attention and focus in my marriage? What have I worshiped besides the Word of God, Jesus, through my marriage?” It’s just a book in one sense that is printed in Illinois, at least my copy, but in the sense of it being God’s Word, it is the vehicle he uses to direct me and my bride through His Spirit and change us. Why wouldn’t I commit to seeking Jesus through the reading of his word with her? Why would I just want to read it alone?

Lastly, why haven’t I taken responsibility for reading the bible with my wife? Initially, I would like to point the finger and say well, “She is always tired when I want to read” or something else that is equally irrelevant and inaccurate. But my love for her and God is demonstrated by what I do and why I do it.

Therefore, I commit to reading the bible on a daily basis with my wife, not just alone, because my ultimate love is to know the sweetness of Jesus. My hunger for Him drives me to hunger for Him with my wife and take responsibility for doing all I can to promote an increased hunger inside of her.

-Adam and Elizabeth Dawson