MARRIAGE MINUTE #1: God-Centered Marriage

"Nothing is impossible with God." Luke 1:37

July 8, 2000

Marriage Minute Introduction:

My marriage is not perfect.  Whose is, right?  But I am grateful for it, and I know that God’s blessing is upon our marriage as well as everyone elses.    No matter how hard it gets or how impossible it seems.  “Nothing is impossible with God.”  Luke 1:37.

We are all a work in progress and so are our marriages.  The bible tells us in Isaiah 64:8 “Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” 

So we should expect to change…we should expect our marriages to change…and trust that God knows what He’s doing.  And trust me, God knew exactly what He was doing when He guided me and my husband through many challenges over the last 12 years.  Through those struggles, I was forever changed…Brad was forever changed…and so was our marriage.  And God is not done!  Even now, we are still growing and learning every day.  God continues to present us with new ways to become more like Him; new ways for us to improve ourselves as individuals and as a married couple.  After having a few opportunities to share with others how much that God has helped my husband and I overcome so many difficulties and bring us such great joy, it became very clear to me how much so many of us need encouragement in our marriages.  I have felt God nudging me (very strongly I might add) to direct my next several blogs towards marriage.   And so I am.    

Over the next few weeks, the “Marriage Minute” blogs I will post will include encouraging stories, helpful hints and words of wisdom that my husband and I have learned that have improved our marriage.  My prayer is that, even though the blog posts will only take you about one minute to read, God will highlight something that you can take away from it and bless your marriage.

MARRIAGE MINUTE #1:

Put God at the center of your marriage: Pray and Protect!

^"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'" Luke 10:27

 

Brad and I come from two different religious backgrounds which definitely has been a challenge in our marriage.  When we met over 16 years ago, neither one of us was strong in our faiths, but since then, that has changed.  But we chose to marry each other regardless of our religious differences and so we are choosing to love each other and trust God with His plan for us and our family.  The bible tells us that God has called us to live in peace.  In the last fews years, even though our views of God are different, we each have promised to put God at the center of our marriage, which for many years, He was not and it showed.  We promised to pray over our marriage and ask God to protect it.  Jesus says in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”  Satan wants to destroy all of our marriages, and God wants us to live life in our marriages abundantly and joyfully.

The bible tells us in Genesis 2: 22-24: “Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, ' for she was taken out of man.’ For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”  And in Matthew 19:6, “Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.”

This week, I pray that no matter what your differences are in your marriage—religious or something else--that you will not let them come between you, but instead choose to put God at the center of your marriage and allow Him to show you ways to appreciate your differences.  I pray that you will start to feel a oneness…a togetherness that you have never felt before…just the way God intended it!

 

 

 

Dedicated to all marriages...Please post any helpful hints that you and your spouse have found beneficial to your marriage.  Let's encourage each other.  Let's pray for one another.  Let's pray over our marriages!