12/01/12

Holding marriages together

Proverbs 5:18 - Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.


People have a very wrong understanding about marriage and if both the husband and wife do not understand it they will not see the glory of God in their lives.

The first wrong understanding people have is that the most primary aspect of marriage is love. One needs to understand when Jesus told His disciples 'love one another as I have loved you', then can anyone love a person more than Jesus' love for us? That means the person is fulfilling Jesus' instruction only towards his wife / her husband and not towards the people of God.

No doubt love is very important aspect of marriage and is the fuel that keeps it going but the engine that drives marriage is responsibility. Responsibility is the primary reason of marriage. Marriage is called a Church - a Body of Christ and the Body of Christ is the responsibility of the people to fulfil the purpose of Christ collectively. The main purpose of marriage is to bring forth and guide the souls of the children from their union unto the Lord and they in turn do the same; similarly the purpose of the Church is to bring souls unto the Lord, to encourage and help them grow in Him so that they too will bring the others who are lost and do the same with them until all who are of the Lord are gathered unto Him.

In today's message the Lord is talking to those who are spiritually not mature and are married. These people who have no real understanding of marriage nor have a clear understanding what love is. They sometimes confuse love which the Lord talks of with the love which the world preaches. For these people (especially the newly married) the Lord is telling them to have a good physical relationship with one another, which means they should surrender to each other and get over with their physical desires. Marriage is not about this love but is allowed by the Lord so help both overcome their weakness of the flesh and not be tempted by Satan.

Husbands and wives who are not fully mature in spirit do not realize the importance of spending more time with each other in the bedroom. Unless they do not get over the desires of the flesh it will hamper them in doing the main purpose of marriage. It also does not mean they should encourage the desires of the flesh forever, for the Lord tells them that every time they come together in the flesh they should also come together in prayer so that they can overcome the desires of the flesh faster.

Marriage is more to do with the children than with the adults who get married. The primary purpose of marriage is to bring forth children but that also does not means marriage should be a child producing factory. Understand there is difference between a child of the flesh and a godly child. No doubt all child come from the Lord but there are differences when you receive a godly child and just a child. Receiving a godly child is one of the greatest blessings one can get and God desires to give to them to those desire Him and walk according to His Plan.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord, many marriages fail because couples do not spend time with each other when they are growing in You. They are more lost with things and people of the world and less with each other. Help them to overcome the desires of the flesh and get on the tract of their union in You. Help them surrender to each other and thus surrender unto your plan. May they have a strong relationship with each other in You. Bless your people with godly children and may they be blessed in You...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference Scriptures ]
1 Corinthians 7:1-6
1 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
2 Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
3 Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
4 The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
5 Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
6 But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.

Ephesians 5:22-33
22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Deuteronomy 24:5 - When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken.

The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others. (All rights are with God)