Day 1: Eros, Love Kept for Marriage
Bible passage: Hebrews 13:4; 1 Corinthians 7:1–5
A Gift from God
Today is Friday 8th of April 2022. Welcome to Day 1 of our 7 Days of Prayer and Fasting. This week we are looking at love, and we begin with the kind the Greeks called eros: romantic, passionate love.
Some Christians are embarrassed by this subject. The Bible is not. It contains a whole book of love poetry, and it says of this kind of love, “Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it.” Song of Songs 8:7 (NLT) Romantic love was God’s idea, and He called what He had made very good.
Designed for Marriage
A Powerful Gift
Eros is strong. It can draw two people together for a lifetime, and it can also wreck a life when it is given free rein. Samson’s desire for Delilah cost him his strength and his freedom. David’s long look at Bathsheba led him into adultery, deceit and murder.
The problem in both stories was not the gift. It was the gift outside the place God made for it.
The Place God Made for It
Scripture is clear about where this love belongs. From the beginning, a man leaves his father and mother, is joined to his wife, and the two become one (Genesis 2:24). Hebrews 13:4 tells us to honour marriage and to keep the marriage bed pure.
Inside marriage, God is generous about it. Paul tells husbands and wives to give themselves to each other and not to hold back, except by agreement for a short time of prayer (1 Corinthians 7:3–5). Proverbs tells a husband to rejoice in the wife of his youth (Proverbs 5:18). Within the covenant, this love brings joy, closeness and children.
Honouring God with This Love
Whatever Your Situation
If you are married, do not let this part of your marriage be crowded out by tiredness, busyness or resentment. Invest in it. Talk honestly. Pray together.
If you are single, your purity honours God and is never wasted. You are complete in Christ, and He sees your faithfulness.
If you have fallen in this area, come to Jesus. He forgives fully and restores what sin has damaged.
Prayer Points for Today
Pray for the marriages in our church, that God would keep them healthy, faithful and full of joy.
Pray for husbands and wives who are struggling, that love and tenderness would be restored.
Pray for our young people, that they would have the strength to honour God with their bodies.
Pray for those who are waiting for a husband or wife, that God would give them patience and peace.
Prayer for Today:
Father, thank You for the gift of romantic love and for Your good design for it. Bless the marriages in our church. Protect them from temptation and renew their joy. Strengthen those who are single and those who are waiting. Forgive us where we have misused Your gift, and make us pure. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Keep going
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