I attended a friend's wedding yesterday. Twenty-two years old he was standing before God and friends watching his bride walk the aisle. He was as white as a sheet but the feelings he had for her was almost palatable. You could tell he adored her. She walked in crying, dressed in a beautiful white gown. You could tell she was enraptured in his love and the love of her family. I love these events; the love, joy, passion, fun, dancing and celebrating. It brings me back thirty-two years to when the love of my life entered the back of the church, walked the aisle and married a man who was just as enraptured and just as naive. Flash forward thirty two years and life has taught me a few lessons. One of these lessons is that life is hard. Life is a challenge and so is marriage. We live in a fallen world that encourages self-centeredness, self-defense, and self-promotion and when both partners in a marriage focus on themselves it creates a little hell on earth. The fact is that the two people who walk the aisle and say "I do" will never have what it takes to make a marriage work. The miracle of a great marriage takes a miracle maker.
One of my favorite pictures of marriage is found in Ecclesiastes 4:12. It reads, "And if one prevails against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not easily broken." The sage understands that we, as followers of God, are under attack; that we need others to withstand those attacks; and that the more people you have standing with you the more likely you are to achieve victory. My favorite application of this scripture is the husband and wife. As they stand together their differences and strengths combine against the attacks of the enemy. The third chord, being the spirit of the living God, strengthens the couple and gives them the strength to stand against the enemy. This holy unity of marriage, which reflects the threefold nature of God as well as the loving nature of God, is the foundation of a holy culture. This explains why it is continuously under attack by the enemy, and the enemy is good at his attacks.
Thought for the week: Marriage is an amazing miracle that can only be established and maintained by God. Your marriage has an enemy, and that enemy wants few thing more than to tarnish, tear asunder, and destroy your marriage. Standing against the enemy requires you to stand firm in the promises of God and your identity in Christ.
Scriptures for the week:
1 Peter 5:8 - Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Ecclesiastes 4: 12 - And if one prevails against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not easily broken.
Prayer: Father, strengthen our marriage. Fulfill your promise to hold us together as we face the challenges of life and the enemy of our marriage. Express yourself through us as we act in loving, respectful, passionate, and sacrificial ways. Bind Your spirit into our marriage. Reveal to us that we are a chord of three strands.
Three Strands Ministry at Colonial Hills
Three Strands Ministry at Colonial Hills
I love this picture of marriage that you have painted. Yes, it is so true that we live in a fallen world,and are doomed to fail unless we have Christ right smack in the middle of our marriage. But... I dare say that we must go a step further than just inviting God to be in the middle of our marriage. We must allow God to live inside of us. We must give ourselves to Christ so that he can then live in us to love and respect our spouses in a way that only God can. This reminds me of what Brother Robert Carter demonstrated in church on Sunday using a glove and a hand. The glove can do nothing unless the hand is inside of it. We are the glove. We can do nothing unless Christ is living and working inside of us. We need to be the flesh that Christ uses to change marriages to be what God originally designed. We are to be a reflection of Christ and the church. We are to be the hands and feet of Jesus. When we get ourselves out of the way and allow God to do his thing in and through us, then and only then will we see true changes in our marriages. Only then will we be a reflection of Christ and the church.
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