Adrian Rogers outlines four principles for strong marriages: Decision, Dependence, Devotion, and Development. Love requires choosing commitment, relying on God, nurturing affection like a cultivated flower, and intentionally growing together. These practices apply whether you're married or single.
Good morning. It's Sunday and I usually don't do a podcast by myself as we'll be doing the Bible study with the Sankatis later, but I get daily devotionals from several sources, one of which is Love Worth Finding Ministries, Adrian Rogers Ministries, and today I decided to actually read a the email that I got from that ministry, and it was so good that I had to share it on the blog. And because I'm sharing it on the blog, I decided to do an impromptu podcast of it. So I'm just going to read what, uh, what I posted already that everyone can see as I pull that up right from the website. Um, some wonderful marriage advice and spiritual teaching from Adrian Rogers and Love Worth Finding. Pray over this: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:34-35. Ponder this: Let me give you some words to remember to to help you keep your marriage on track. The first one is decision. Make a decision that you're going to live for God. God will not force His will on you. Listening to sermons will not change you unless you decide to obey the Word of God. Choose this day whom you will serve, Joshua 24:15. Give your heart to the Lord. The next word is dependence. It is not enough to decide because you do not have the strength in your own power to live for God, but God can deliver you if you will depend on Him. The third word is devotion. Begin to love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul, and love your wife as yourself. After this decision and after this dependence, let God pour His love through you. You are to love each other, not if you feel like it, but because God commands it. Love for one another comes primarily from Almighty God. Fourthly, development. Continue to feed your love daily. You must nurture your love. It is a growing thing. It is like a flower that needs to be cultivated. It needs to be protected, and its full beauty can be developed through life. When you have— when you— when have you had to depend on God in order to love someone? What does it look like to make an intentional effort to love another person? Practice this: if you are married, find an intentional way to nurture your marriage. If you are not married, find an intentional way to love someone else the way Jesus loves. Again, that was from Adrian Rogers in Love Worth Finding. That's some solid biblical teaching about discipleship, really, and, uh, the way that works in your marriage. And so, um, I thought it was a good word, and I entitled that Love Worth Keeping, uh, with decision, dependence, devotion, and development by Adrian Rogers, giving credit to the saint who's gone before us, and Adrian Rogers, wonderful teacher. And I share the link on the blog to his ministry that still continues even though he's gone on to, uh, to heaven. So we hope you enjoyed that, and we encourage you, because it's Sunday, to check out our Bible study that we'll be posting later today, and to of course worship the Lord in spirit and truth, preferably in the community of other saints at a Bible-believing church to, to enjoy the fellowship and worship with others, and where you can practice love and kindness. All right, this is M.t. Clark, and I'm signing off. God bless you all.
Making Too Many Mistakes and The Mercy of God’s Grace and Favor - Purity 1811
