Romeo and Juliet loved. There love was so deep they could not live without the other. A love that pitted them against rival families who were filled with hatred. Families that would never accept their love.



William Shakespeare wrote this epic tail showing how love can be defeated by the quarreling surrounding families. Love can be devoured by hate to the point that the only hope of two people to hold unto their love is by going to their graves.

Today over fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce. Husbands and wives end their marriages stating:"Irreconcilable Differences" as the reason for there demise. But I tell you that it has nothing to do with their incompatibility, it has everything to do with our present day world.

We are a society separated by differences from skin color to ethnic backgrounds. We live in a world where everything, from our religion to our country, chooses whom we can love.

We have also become a society of workaholics. We are so burdened by our desire for things that we are chained to our work. When our spouse needs us, we can't give except in material things. So love that once united becomes cold and every day trials become disasters.

Love and affection takes work. It takes spending time together. It takes making love often and forgetting the work we must accomplish in our life. Paul realized the need for strong committed relationship when he wrote these words in the Bible's renown 'love chapter'.

1 Corinthians 13: 1- 3, "I may be able to speak the languages of men and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. I may have the gift of inspired preaching: I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains-but if I have no love, I am nothing. I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned-but if I have no love, this does me no good."

We live in a very complex world that fights against all forms of love. We are at war and couples are the favorite target of the unseen spiritual forces of evil. Because Satan is the god of this world, he roams the earth devouring love and turning cupids arrows of love into hate by turning couples against each other through fights and quarrels.

God is love and the destruction of love puts a stop to good in the world and allows the fallen angels of hell to inflict punishment on those who are not under the protection of God. Satan knows if he can destroy marriages he can stop healthy families from forming strong unions bound together with love.

Families who understand the fight and stay together no matter what they face in life. Couples who love even when it is hard to love. Wives and husbands that refuse to keep a record of everything their mate has done wrong.

1 Corinthians 13: 4-7, "Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up: and its faith, hope, and patience never fail."

Satan's influence destroys couples by using their emotions as a weapon to lash out. He keeps them in the clutches of jealousy and selfishness by reminding them how much time there mate spends with other people, instead of them.

But under the influence of the Spirit of God we are given another message. Truth teaches us to let go of each others faults, not to keep records of wrongs, and to allow forgiveness to heal our problems. The Spirit of God helps us to have patience and gives us hope that things will get better in future.

We live in a corrupt and evil world that demands that we serve it. In order to set up a house, we must work! The same must happen within the makeup of a marriage. We must constantly forgive and love and talk out our relationship problems so Satan doesn't get a foothold into our lives and corrupt us through evil thoughts.

The only way we can do this is by holding tightly to the love we have for our husband or wife. We must recognize Satan's influence in our thinking and fight for love.

We need to understand that Love is God and only through God can we stand firm and be unaffected by lives ups and downs. Because God is everlasting and eternal.

1Corinthians 13:8&9, "Love is eternal. There are inspired messages, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass. For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages are only partial; but when what is perfect comes, then what is partial will disappear."

Love helps us to face all forms of tragedies from the loss of a child to facing a disease or disability. Love helps us to dig our way out of financial crisis from job loss or company reorganization.

By facing this world, within the establishment of a strong relationship, we have strength. Jesus said when two or more pray together, He answers their prayers.

As people of faith we must pray for our relationships and hold tight when tragedies rear their ugly head. Together, couples can achieve miracles through faith in God, but when couples fight without God, they fail.

1Corthinthians 13: 11-13, "When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I am a man, I have no more use for childish ways. What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face. What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete-as complete as God's knowledge of me.

Meanwhile these three remain; faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love."

We must put aside childish emotions that allow jealousy, evil, and all forms of strive to enter into our marriages and think like adults. We must learn to overcome adversity with love.

Love is not a Shakespearean tragedy that results in both parties dying. Love is a force that stands up against all opposition and wins. Love produces hope and faith that nothing is impossible when God is the head of our household.

Cupid's arrows hit strong fortresses of love. Couples who would Fight For Love!