Colossians 3:14-15 - Summer of Scripture

Welcome to Summer of Scripture on the Naked marriage podcast. For 66 days in a row, we are releasing a daily devotional episode for your marriage. And over these 66 days, we're going to pull out one scripture from each of the 66 books of the Bible and talk about how it applies to your marriage. So if you listen to every single one of these episodes, you're going to have a comprehensive understanding of God's plan for your marriage. We encourage you to listen to everyone. Let's dive into today's scripture.

Hello and welcome back to the Summer of Scripture on the Naked Marriage Podcast. Today is day 51, and we are in Colossians, chapter 3, verses 14 and 15. It says this above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body, you are called to live in peace and always be thankful. I love that so much.

Yeah, there's a lot going on in those couple verses.

A lot.

Yes, a lot. You know, clothe yourself with love. I love that image of. You know, the Bible talks about putting on the full armor of God as an image. Clothe yourself with love, clothe yourself with kindness that we. These are things that we choose to put on ourselves. It's something that simultaneously comes from within us, but also it's an intentional choice to. To live a certain way, live with love. The end of that part. Let love, the peace that comes from Christ, rule in your hearts. The Greek behind that rule in your hearts is where we get the word umpire. It's essentially saying, let the peace that comes from Christ umpire be what calls the shots in your heart. An umpire in baseball is the guy behind home plate that says if something is a ball or a strike. And the Bible's saying, let God's peace be what tells you what's in bounds and what's out of bounds, what's right and what's wrong, what his will for you is. So if you're wondering what. What God's will for your life is, I mean, certain things we know for sure are God's will. Love each other, Be committed to your spouse. Be committed to your family. Do your best. Have integrity. I mean, those things are just part of God's will for all of us, but then more specifically for your life. What do you want me to do, God? Do you want me to take this job or that job? You want me to live in this house or move to that house? What do you want me to do? The peace of God is something that can help you call the shots as you and your spouse pray together. Lord, bring us both to having peace about this. And if there's any big decision you're facing and the big decisions that we face through the years about moving, about starting a new endeavor, about taking a new job, those kind of big decisions that are gonna impact not only us, but our children and potentially even generations that come after our children, we pray about it. Say, lord, lead us to a place of having peace. We don't wanna force this. We don't wanna rush this. And when both of us have peace about it, that's when we really feel like, okay, that's God's way of saying it's time.

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Definitely. Because I don't feel like he's going to call one of you to something and not the other spouse. And we hear from a lot of you who listen to the podcast and watch us on YouTube and things, and you're like, you know, what do you do when especially it comes to having children? And one of you really wants to have more children and the other doesn't, or one of you thinks now's a good time to have children and the other is like, no, no, no, we need to wait longer. That's a common question. We. The desire to have children is a beautiful desire. You know, children, it's very clear children are a gift from God. And I think that it's a beautiful desire. But it is hard when, you know, you both want children. I mean, sometimes it's one wants children and one doesn't. You know, hopefully that's something that you talked about before you got married. Cause that's a big one. It's a really big one.

Yeah, it's a big one.

But when it comes to just like, how many kids or when to have kids and all that kind of stuff, you've really gotta pray through that. And we've talked to many people through this and counseled them even over this. And we always say it's better to just wait till you both feel that peace about it. You gotta have peace about it. And it's good to talk about. Like, well, is it. Do we not have peace about it in quotation marks because we just don't want to do it or because we have fear about something, you know, that's kind of an irrational fear. Or it's because we're not trusting God enough. Like, we're just not trusting God enough with something. I know when it comes to this particular issue about having more kids or the timing of having children, a lot of times one spouse is maybe more financially minded, and they're like, we're not to this point in our financial situation that I feel like it's okay to have kids. Like, we get that a lot from people. But this is a great opportunity for both of you to really talk and pray through this and, you know, not see each other as enemies or holding each other back, but just waiting and praying and seeking the Lord over this so that you both can be on the same page. You know, we had friends years ago who. Where the wife, you know, they already had four kids, and the wife just said, I know that we're called to adopt. And the husband was like, we are just now coming up for air. Like, we have four kids. I mean, we've been blessed, you know, I just don't understand. And he said, for literally, like, two years, they went back and forth on this. And she was kind of frustrated with him, but he was also kind of frustrated with her. And I remember we sat down with them at dinner one night, and we had known this had been going on. And with tears in his eyes, he said, well, it's been another year, and I've really prayed about this. And now I'm even, probably even as excited, if not more excited to adopt children than she is. He said, God has done a move in me. And he's like, I have that same fire that my wife does. And it was such a cool moment, but it took time, and they had.

To be patient a couple sessions ago. Love is patient.

Yes.

And God's gonna bring you to places, sometimes in different timing, so that you can love each other by being patient with each other.

Right?

And it's so neat, though, that when both of you are truly. See if both of you are truly seeking God, he is going to bring you both to peace around the same thing. He does not want to cause division in your marriage. So any division in your marriage is really the result of us rushing things or us just in our own sinful nature, pushing away the will of God. But if both of us will humbly open our hands and say, God, we want whatever you have for us. Our lives are in your hands. Lead us to the same conclusion. He will. He wants that for you. And so if there's some big decision you're wrestling with right now, pray together. God, give us peace, give us unity around this issue, and then wait on him. And he really will. Guys, thanks so much for tuning in today. Hope that was an encouragement to you. Join us tomorrow. Day 52 will be in the book of 1 Thessalonians. We'll see you then.

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