Last night we started our Heart of Marriage retreat and so far it has caused you to look very seriously at your marriage through the eyes of scriptures. In our world the sanctity of marriage is under attack. Unfortunately we live in a throw away society and many see marriages under this light. If it does not work out, you divorce and try again or some do not even get married they just live together. Yesterday I talked I little about unity and oneness. What people do not realize is oneness in marriage is a powerful force. In our society, which is probably no different from past generations, sexual intimacy with that one person is lost. When the two become one you are married in the eyes of God. So when you have multiple sexually active relationships, you are committing adultery before God. (If this is you make sure you repent for this) This is why we teach our kids to wait until they are married to be sexually intimate with that person God has chosen for them and then after they are married faithful to that one until death do you part.
As we enter into this third Sunday of Lent, we will be looking at having an unshakeable and unwavering faith. This can only happen by serving Jesus Christ wholeheartedly in the power of the Holy Spirit. In order to have an unshakeable marriage you need to centre your relationship on the word of God. The act of marriage is based on Jesus as the groom and we as the bride, thus we need to take our marriage very serious as we are representing Jesus. Ephesians 5:22 “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Saviour. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” Isn’t it interesting that this chapter 5 is followed in chapter 6 by telling you to put on the full armour of God? A marriage that is shake proof will look like this previous passage and will know they need the armour of God to be shake proof. If people would actually read this passage and live by it our marriages would be rock solid and unshakeable. Just as we are to give ourselves up for Christ we are to give ourselves up for each other. A refusal to submit to God and to our spouses leads to a broken relationship. Start by submitting your life to Jesus Christ and then He will show you the way.
