Did you survive Valentine’s Day focusing on the true love of your life? Last week I gave you four ways Jesus is your perfect husband. Since the Bible’s use of seven represents the number of completion, I want to complete that list this week by giving you three more ways Jesus is the perfect husband:
- His love for you will never change or diminish.
In Jeremiah 31:3, we are told of God’s heart for us: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you” (ESV). And that was in the context of a strained relationship in which the wife (Israel) was not acting faithfully toward her husband. Jesus puts no parameters or conditions around His unfailing love for you. In Hebrews 13:5, He says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” And in Romans 8:38-39, we are told that “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That means no circumstance, condition, or person will ever draw your heavenly husband’s heart and love away from you. That is perfect love that will never leave.
2. He sees the best in you.
A discouraged wife recently told me “No matter what I do, my husband sees me through the lens of my past mistakes and failures. I will never be able to make him see me the way he once did.” Spouses can tend to see the worst in each other. And that baggage can collect through the years. Yet, Scripture tells us that in Christ we are a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17) and this God who knows everything about us still chooses to not remember our sins (Isaiah 43:25). In Psalm 139:17 David sang this about the God who sees the best in us: “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.They cannot be numbered!” (NLT).
Furthermore, Scripture gives us this tender description of our Heavenly Husband: “The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.mHe has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:8-12, NLT). That is a husband who holds no baggage against us, remembers no offense, and continues to see us as spotless and new in His eyes.
3. He has your best at heart.
It’s natural for us, as humans, to be selfish. And therefore, a sense of competition can occur between a husband and wife, or just selfishness that leaves us wanting our preferences over our spouse’s and vice versa. But Jesus is the epitome of self-sacrifice in that He gave up His own life for you. He combines that sacrificial love for you with an intimate knowledge of what is eternally best for you. And that means He always has your eternal best at heart.
In Matthew 7:11 we are told that if we, who are human, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Heavenly Father give what is good to those who love Him? Your Heavenly Father and Heavenly Husband knows what is very best for you. Psalm 84:11 tells us “Nogood thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” So, if you’re asking your Perfect Husband for something good that you don’t yet have, it either isn’t truly good for you or it isn’t time. Trust Him with what He withholds, with how long He waits, and with how He chooses to bless. You have a Husband who provides for you in the very best way possible.
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for being the Perfect Husband who pursues my heart, patiently loves me, and promises to never leave. May I be, to You, the perfect lover in return through my surrender and obedience, my worship and adoration of You, and my love and dependence on You as the Only One who satisfies.
For more on this Heavenly Husband of yours who will never leave, see my books, Letting God Meet Your Emotional Needs and When God Pursues a Woman’s Heart.
Thank you much for putting that in perspective….I do understand now. I am dealing with some very stressfull things that I ask you to pray for…..I do so want to be blessed by my God…..but I do have some work to do on obedience…..I need prayer on my strength for financial breakthrough and my anxiety is just letting thoughts run through my head…..maybe its worry which I know God does not want me to do…..just pray…..I’m in a mess…..but I do know God loves me and He does keep my head above water but I want more.
Thank you for your honesty, Bev. My book, Drama Free, is one that I believe will help you keep those emotions in check and keep from letting those thoughts run loose in your life. I have a chapter on how to capture those anxious thoughts and correct them with the truth of God’s Word and God’s character. Blessings to you.
thank you so much for this most of my friends are in a relationship and i truly do not have a desire. tho it gets difficult knowing its NOT you once again, and I have a very difficult times in relationships i am finally beginning to enjoy my relationship with God. Even tho at times i wonder if He’s punishing me, I have to trust He truly loves me.
Hi Ivy. I feel compelled to respond to you by saying that God, as our Heavenly Father, disciplines His children whom He loves, but He is not a God who “punishes” His children. There is a difference. His discipline is out of love, but punishment is often out of retribution or ill motives. My book, When God Pursues a Woman’s Heart, might help you see the softer side of God, the side of Him that draws you closer to Him as you seek to understand Who He is. (Jeremiah 29:13).
Such a thought provoking post.
I don’t yet feel worthy of calling Jesus Christ my spouse. I have a very long way to go before I have earned such merit.
Having an extremely abusive father has made it very difficult for me to fathom an unconditionally loving God.
My relationship is not with a husband but overcoming father-daughter incest that has taken me my 62 years of life to sort out. So it is very difficult for me to see through the darkness to the Light of Christ though I know He is there and I reach for Him as often as I am able to remember.
I wish I could understand what it is that you’re saying, Cynthia, but this just doesn’t make sense to me. The only way I relate to Jesus Christ is when I look in the center of my hands and show Him my scars and tell Him I will continue to endure for Him because I beg to be nailed to that Cross with Him than to wallow in the earthly filth of self-serving relationships that spit in His face.
I guess what I do relate to is when you talk about a sense of “competition.” True love is not about competition. Competition is the result of narcissism that is so prevalent in our hedonistic “selfie” culture.
Hi Sally: None of us could ever EARN the merit of an intimate relationship with Christ (or being considered His “spouse.” That’s the beauty of God’s grace and love….He knew we couldn’t earn it, so He gave it unconditionally to us. We must just embrace it. That’s why Jesus had to die for us on the cross…becasue we could never earn our way into His love, His heaven, His righteousness. It is only by His grace and our faith that we are saved (Ephesians 2:8-9). A few years ago, I wrote a book called “When a Woman Overcomes Life’s Hurts” that helps women process and overcome the hurt in their past (including the hurt of incest). I have a story in that book of a woman named Sharon who was abused by her father in every way possible, but came to know her Heavenly Father as one who was unlike her earthly father in every way. What she discovered about God in His Word transformed her life and it can transform yours, too. You can also learn more about what it means to grow in a relationship in which we see God as our Spiritual husband in my book, “Letting God Meet Your Emotional Needs.” I hope you will keep in touch and read and come to a clearer understanding of this God who pursues your heart. 🙂
Thank you very much for your help in teaching us the love of our heavenly God.I continue to pray for his unconditional love to me and my family and friends,I pray that I can continue having my faith regardless of my situations.