"The love is gone and you can't force feelings that aren't there anymore."
How it sounds in your head: You look at them and feel nothing. No butterflies, no excitement, just exhaustion or irritation. You can't fake emotions you don't have. Love isn't a choice when the feelings are dead - that's just pretending, and you're tired of pretending.
"Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away."
-- 1 Corinthians 13:8Hollywood's definition of love as feeling instead of covenant, making your emotions more authoritative than God's Word.
The romantic feelings that used to be effortless are completely gone, and trying to 'act loving' feels like lying. Every song and movie says real love is a feeling, and yours is flatlined.
Abigail was married to Nabal, whose name literally means 'FOOL' - harsh, evil, worthless man. She had zero romantic feelings for him, yet she honored the covenant. When he died, David proposed and she went from married to a fool to married to a king IMMEDIATELY - her faithfulness in a dead marriage positioned her for royalty.
I REFUSE the lie that marriage depends on my fluctuating feelings. IT IS WRITTEN that love NEVER FAILS, and since God IS love and He lives in me, LOVE is present whether I feel it or not. I am a branch in the VINE, and love is FRUIT that grows from connection to Jesus, not from my emotional state. The BARAK blessing flows through COVENANT, not chemistry. IT IS WRITTEN that He is faithful when we are faithless, and His faithfulness is resurrecting affection in this marriage right now. Abigail honored a fool and became a queen - my obedience in a season of dead feelings is positioning me for OVERFLOW.
The Father isn't asking you to conjure feelings you don't have - He's offering to BE the love THROUGH you, pouring His nature into your marriage while you simply stay connected to the Vine. Abigail felt nothing for Nabal, but God saw her covenant honor and made her a queen overnight.