Adultery

Hosea 2, "She said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.'...She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them." Whether we want to admit it or not, we have all committed adultery. We see others that we think we want. We see them and think they will offer us a better life. They will offer us true joy and satisfaction. They will satisfy our bodies and we will finally find fulfillment. Physical and spiritual adultery are the same. We set out seeking fulfillment and are left with the feelings of disappointment and dissatisfaction. "Both spiritual and physical adultery begin with diverting affection from one object of devotion to another."

If I take my eyes off of my husband and begin looking longingly at other men, then I will begin to seek after someone else. It begins subtly. You never start out thinking, I am going to ruin my marriage and destroy others in my life. You start out wishing your spouse were different. You start concentrating on their faults and comparing them with someone else. Then after some time has gone by you are blind to what you are doing and you find yourself in bed with another. "The diverting of our affection is the first step in the blinding process that leads into sin." This is not some impulse that you have no control over, but a longing in your heart that you have lusted after until you have fulfilled it. Many times you do not even know it is happening until it is too late. It starts small, then your relationship with your mate is destroyed. No matter how good your life may be in the end, you will never be able to rid your thoughts of the destruction and pain that you caused in the process.

God is our husband and we are continually looking to others to satisfy our longings. He has called us to love only Him, but we are adulterers. After we have exhausted our running after others, then we will finally turn back to Him. "She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, 'I will go back to my Husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.' She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold...Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her...'In that day,' declares the LORD, 'you will call me 'my Husband'; you will no longer call me 'my Master'." How often I have left my true love for the thought of finally finding better. I have been so wrong. It seems there is always the promise of better. The grass always seems better on the other side, but I always find myself returning home afterwards. No matter what others promise me; no matter how many gifts they give me; my Husband is the one who offers me true satisfaction. He is the one that will care for me and He is the one that will always truly love me. He has paid the ultimate price for me. I have done nothing that deserves His love, for I am an adulterous wife. Christ, my true Husband, offers true satisfaction and true joy. So why am I continually looking after others to satisfy my feelings. If I do not stop in my longings, I will continually be left with a feeling of disappointment. Who do you long after?

Every marriage takes work and commitment. We cannot live continually on an emotional high. If we enter our marriage with the idea that it will be more loving moments than work, we will always be looking to others to satisfy our illusions. This life is work. In our relationship with our spouse and with our LORD, we must work on ourselves and our part of the marriage. It is when we become selfish and think that there is someone better, or our husband is not doing His part, that we start looking at others. Every day I must look at myself and see what my role in this relationship is. If I start judging my Husband and looking at Him with disappointment, then I may be tempted to sleep with another.

http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/my-utmost-for-his-highest/07/20/devotion.aspx?year=2009