Faith: God and Your Marriage

We go to the Bible for a number of reasons. I go to the Bible to learn, to grow, to find comfort, to understand God’s plan for my life, and when I am sad or hurt or angry. How about you? Are there times you go to the Bible? In my list of reasons I go to the Bible for a long time, my marriage was not one of them. It just didn't cross my mind. Yet, if God designed marriage and has a plan for every couple, why do I/we not seek His counsel on marriage in His Word? There are some great verses on marriage. I have heard many of them. I have looked many of them up in the Bible. I have shared them with other people. It’s time to put them on my list of favorite verses. Here are four that I found that I want to share with you.

Proverbs 18:22 says. “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.” I really need this one every day. Nancy is a gift from God. My life has been so shaped and so enriched by having her as my wife. Yet, in the midst of my day, I can lose sight of that. I need this verse to keep my focus on what God has given me in her.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 - Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. This is the verse we hear at almost every wedding that we attend. It is the template to lay over our marriage. Try this. Read this verse and put your name in every reference to love. Mine would look like this: Kim is patient and kind; Kim does not envy or boast; Kim is not arrogant or rude. Kim does not insist on his own way; Kim is not irritable or resentful; Kim does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Kim bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 16:14 ~ Let all that you do be done in love. Meet Jake and Mary. There were a lot of reasons for Jake’s anger and most of it had nothing to do with his wife Mary but when his anger came out, where do you think it was directed? Mary. In counseling, we began to deal with Jake’s anger. It was evident that Jake loved God and he loved Mary. He didn't know why he kept exploding on Mary, but he did. He needed God to act. I gave him this verse, “Let all that you do be done in love.” I asked him to pray that God would write that on his heart in his relationship with Mary. Jake began praying it every day. Sometimes in counseling I get to see miracles. For Jake this verse became a miracle as he controlled his anger and Mary was the beneficiary.

Mark 10:6-9 - But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” Often when I teach about sex in marriage, I take two pieces of construction paper. One pink and one blue. Then I take glue, put it on both and stick them together. I keep teaching and in ten minutes or so, I pick up the two pieces of paper glued together. I take the corner of the pink one in one hand and the corner of the blue one in the other. Then I pull them apart. There is still the individual sheet of blue and the individual sheet of pink but now there is blue construction paper on the pink paper and pink construction paper on the blue one. That’s God’s plan for marriage. Two people glued together so tightly that they truly become one while still maintaining their individuality as God created them. When Nancy and I go through rocky times, I get that picture in my mind. It is not each of us going through the rocky times alone. No. We are a team. We are one. We are pink on blue and blue on pink.

Your Challenge: Print out these 4 verses and keep them some place where you will see them and recite them every day. Then, see what changes in your marriage!