WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: ‘Many claim to have unfailing love, but a faithful person who can find?’ (Proverbs 20:6, TNIV). Praise God for his constant love and faithfulness. Relationship drama It’s difficult to work out what’s happening in this passage, but it certainly seems to be packed full of drama! It’s one of those days – all couples have them. A row starts. The man is late coming home (v 2); his hair is wet with dew (or rain?); his wife has gone to bed (v 3); she doesn’t want to have to get dressed again to let him in. So she locks him out as a punishment. He calls; she leaves him there to suffer! Is she perhaps beginning to take him for granted? Or perhaps creature comforts are beginning to predominate over love’s early passion? Either way, it’s a classic example of a relationship where one partner is asking for or assuming more than the other is currently willing to give. Longing for reconciliation As soon as the wife has shut him out, she remembers her love for him (vs 4,5). All she longs for is reconciliation. But she has pushed too hard – he has gone (v 6)! When our efforts at reconciliation are rebuffed, it’s all too easy to withdraw in hurt. But not this woman (v 7). Her urgency and determination to get her lover back, in spite of a battering, are quite an example (vs 6,7). Respond: Take some time to think about your relationships. Are they good, or are there unsolved rows and problems? What about your relationship with God? http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-11-29