Have you ever been camping out and had to get up in the morning to stir up the coals of a fire from the evening before in order to get some warmth? Can you picture the white ash on top that hides the glow of some embers still burning underneath as you stir the coals? Do you remember blowing on the coals and feeding them a few small sticks or dried out pine needles in order to get a flame to spring back to life? Breathing life into an old, worn-out relationship, or even one that has just been untended for a while is much like this. It sure is much easier to get that fire going with hot coals already in place than to start over from scratch!
Hopefully four weeks into the “Love Dare” you have recognized that this book is not a cure-all for marriage relationships. In fact, no such thing exists. However, the value of this book is in guiding people to think intentionally about, and actively do things that bless their marriage partner. Some of the “dares” have been very easy; others, not so easy. Some of the “dares” have been spot-on concerning an area relevant to your marriage; others, maybe not so much. The point is that you are developing habits of thinking about your marriage and doing something to rekindle the fire in your relationship on a daily basis. You are stirring up the coals each morning instead of waiting for them burn out completely.
God provides an illustration of this through His prophet, Ezekiel, as he has a vision of a valley full of dry bones in Ezekiel 37. The bones represent the “whole house of Israel” according to V. 11. This nation, who was in a bond of covenant with the One true God (a marriage bond), has somehow allowed that relationship to dry up and the life be taken out of them. The feeling is that their “hope has perished” (V. 11)! (Can any of you relate to this feeling?) Interestingly, God asks Ezekiel in V. 3, “Son of man, can these bones live?” and the prophet answers, “O LORD God, You know.” God does know, and will demonstrate His power to put things back in order and breathe life in these bones, but submission is required!
The solution to bringing life back to these old, dry bones is for them to “hear the word of the LORD” (V. 4), and for Him to “put My Spirit within you, and you will come to life” (V. 14). No words of wisdom or special incantation from Ezekiel would ever bring those old bones back to life. No power from within the bones, themselves, would bring them back to vitality! The solution is found in the word of God and His Spirit dwelling within them. The same is true in dealing with our marriages today!!!
You can try to build the foundation of your marriage upon a lot of things, but the one true way of success is to look to the word of God for the direction and guidance to put order back to a relationship that has fallen apart. Ezekiel writes, “So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone” (V. 7). Again, let me emphasize! What Ezekiel was told to “prophesy” over the bones was for them to “HEAR THE WORD OF THE LORD” (V. 4)! God used this to put things back in order. God then put His Spirit within them and they came to life!
He can, and will, do the same thing with your marriage! Daily let His word speak order to your relationship and allow his Spirit to bring life to your bond and see if the embers being stirred don’t produce a flame that keeps you both warm! I DARE YOU!!!
-Scott
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