Most people today look at marriage as a means for experiencing love, happiness and fulfillment. Make no mistake about it, those things are important. Those things are critical. They are just not the most critical.
What is the most critical component of living out a satisfying and meaningful marriage is a correct understanding of God’s intention for marriage. Marriage is a covenantal union designed to strengthen the capability of each partner to carry out the plan of God in their lives.
Marriages today are deteriorating at such a high rate – not because we no longer get along, but because we have lost sight of the purpose and prosperity of the marriage covenant. Marriages are collapsing because men and women have come to a place in their marriage where the reality they live in looms far from what they had once dreamt or hoped for, and many are getting out of marriage almost as quickly as they got into it.
It reminds me of a guy who went to the Super Bowl. The stadium was packed, but the seat next to him sat empty. The man behind him questioned him about the empty seat. He answered, “That seat was for my wife. She would have been here, but she died.”
The other man offered his condolences and asked him if he didn’t have a friend that he could have asked to come with him rather than let the seat remain empty. The man replied, “I do, but all my friends said they wanted to go to the funeral instead.”
Now, I realize I’m making light of a weighty subject, but I’m doing so to illustrate how the seriousness of the wedding vows no longer seems to be honored.
One major reason for the devolution of so many marriages is that many don’t understand the nature of the agreement they made when they got married. And if you do not understand this agreement—if you do not view it as God does—then you will not be prone to protect it.
What’s even worse, you won’t benefit from it.
I don’t know where your marriage is today, but it’s my guess that it’s under pressure and stress, and it’s just not what you hoped it would be. But without a divine frame of reference, we will stray from God’s formula for a healthy, productive relationship. God’s formula involves the nature of His covenant of marriage.
You can have a happy marriage or a miserable marriage depending on whether your roles are reflecting His image and design for the union of marriage. God is not going to force any of us to follow His design. He isn’t going to force any of us to have a happy marriage. What He has done is set up the fundamentals of a covenant, and He has given us the option of utilizing them.
You cannot leave God at the altar and expect to have a thriving marriage. God must join you in your home according to the aspects He has set up in His covenant. When He does, and when you abide by His authority, He can make your house a real home. You cannot do it alone. You cannot even do it as a husband and wife. God must be the power that keeps you together.
I challenge you to commit yourselves to God and function within the parameters of His divinely orchestrated covenant of marriage. Let Him remake your marriage into something that He can use not only to glorify Himself, but to enable you to exercise dominion and experience enjoyment in your life today!
Testimony Time
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