Doing Marriage God’s Way
For those willing to lay their preconceived ideas about their marriages down and begin to do marriage God’s way, there will be unrivaled fulfillment that comes from knowing our Heavenly Father is pleased with us, His children.
God loves us and, although He requires us to put Him first, He also desires our marriage to be blessed with joy that comes only with His leadership and presence in our marriage.
Christianity is all about transformation, not improvement. Just as our salvation brings a totally new life, our marriages should then reflect who we are as “born again” adopted children of our Heavenly Father. Transformation is the key to making changes permanent. A marriage that is built on God’s plan and standards requires much more than just human effort and intellectual understanding. It requires transformational changes that make us different than we were before in our relationship as a couple, and in our individual roles as husband and wife.
This must take place as part of the process of becoming a fully-committed disciple of Jesus Christ. Our life’s overriding goal, either married or single, should be to become more like Jesus, the Son of God. Cooperating in this transformation process brings love, blessing, and harmony to our marriage, and creates the “Godly” and secure environment to raise our children, so they find and experience faith and follow Christ.
This demands all of us to put our marriage first among all other earthly relationships, even our careers and our service within the church. Every spouse should know that they come second only to God Almighty, and every spouse must show that they are most happy when they are in this second place!
Every spouse should know that they come second only to God Almighty, and every spouse must show that they are most happy when they are in this second place!
This living out our faith in our marriage and home is not a religious effort, but the working out of all the aspects of our daily life with the help of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit not only gives us wisdom but also the power to be transformed. That is His role in our lives. It can be experienced in any place and within any activity. This process is to take place in our homes, our work, our activities, in every place and at all times. It will be reflected in the way we communicate with each other and in the way we make decisions.
Excerpt from: The Fulfilled Marriage: The Three Doors by Ted Dean (available here)
