This week we began a series, called "Growing to the Chapel", in which we'll explore some of what God says about the covenant of marriage. It will build a great foundation for those who are not yet married. And it will serve as a refresher course for those of us who are.
Let's begin with two important foundational principles:
- God did not make us because he needed us; He created us to love us. God is completely self-sufficient. He wasn’t lonely, feeling unfulfilled or bored. God created us simply to be the primary focus of His love (1 John 4:19).
- God did not create woman for man; He created woman for man to love. Woman was not created to be man’s servant. That was never part of God's plan. Instead, men are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church (Ephesians 5:25).
We don't want the kind of marriages that we see around us. Today, somewhere around half of marriages end in divorce and of those that survive, that's about all they do...survive.
If we're going to arrive at a different destination, we have to take a different path. Here are a couple commitments we can make to pursue marriage by God's path:
- I will wait until marriage to share the "intimate blessings" of marriage. Marriage is to be honored by all (Hebrews 13:4). That means everyone who is married AND everyone who is unmarried. Let me put this very simply. The gift of physical and emotional intimacy are reserved for those who are married.
- Instead of focusing on what I want, I will focus on what I want to give. If we are going to follow God's plan for relationships, we must never look to people to meet our needs, fill the void or to make us feel whole. That’s God’s role. God is the one who meets our deepest needs. God is the one who fills the void in our lives. God is the one who makes us whole. We begin as recipients of God’s love, and over time, we become so filled with God’s love that we begin to want to share God's love with our best friend for the rest of our lives in the covenant of marriage.
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