Marriage Message #287 - Moving Toward God in Marriage It is our goal at Marriage Missions to help us all Reveal and Reflect the Heart of Christ Within Marriage --further moving us toward God. We do this through sending out weekly Marriage Messages, and what we make available on our web site at Marriagemissions - including the Prayer Wall you can use to post a prayer request for your marriage and a growing number (multiple hundreds) of posted articles, blogs, videos, recommended resources and comments. We also use Twitter, and post relationship tips on Facebook each day in hopes that these will help marriages as well. For this message, were giving you some of the Facebook marriage tips weve posted in the past. Hopefully, youll find them helpful. And if youre inclined, wed appreciate it if youd post comments, encouraging others with your tips in this message on our web site, as well. May the Lord speak to you (as He has us) as you prayerfully consider and discuss the following thoughts one-by-one. -- What a marriage needs is the superglue of Philippians 2:3: Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than yourselves. This requires sacrificial effort. The Bible describes this plan in Matthew 22:39: you shall love your neighbor as yourself . Theres no closer neighbor than the one you wake up with every morning! (Dennis Rainey) -- A friend of mine recently celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary. If theres one thing Ive learned about marriage, its to never get so comfortable you cease to cultivate it, she told me. At first her words amazed me. How much cultivating could a 50-year marriage need? But Ive come to realize everything requires constant care to survive. Our house needs a fresh coat of paint, highways need resurfacing, and a marriage needs a fresh coat of LOVE. (Mayo Mathers) -- Its a sad state of affairs when we take better care of our cars and houses than we do our marriages. We fill the tank, check the tires, and periodically tune up our cars. We wash windows, paint walls, and re-roof our houses, but what do we do to maintain our marriages? The truth is, more damage than repairs are made... Stop saying your marriage is important. Words can be cheap [if not lived out]. Prove it! (Dr. Steve Stephens) --Everyone who marries will encounter a season when the weight of the relationship ends up on his or her shoulders. Spouses get sick, distracted, selfish or overworked, etc. Life happens, the weight shifts, and suddenly we find ourselves wondering, is this how God meant it to be? The choices we make during this difficult time are critical to the health of our marriage [as well as our personal spiritual life] (Susie Larson) PLEASE choose Gods way, not mans. --Its easy to forget that love returns in waves...you have to wait it out. Love is like the tides of the ocean. Sometimes they come in and passion is high. You feel the love and the relationship is wonderful. Then there are times the tide is out. The relationship is dry and lifeless. You wonder if the tide will ever return. But if youre patient and stay on the beach, romance will return to feel the love again. (Dr. Steve Stephens) --Marriages usually dont collapse overnight. They become bankrupt gradually because they lack daily deposits of love, communication, and affirmation. Unfortunately, many couples have lost the spark they shared before they married and have replaced it with a humdrum routine. Dating and romancing your spouse can change those patterns. (Doug Fields) --Love convinces a couple that they are the greatest romance that has ever been, that no two people have ever loved as they do, and they will sacrifice absolutely anything in order to be together. And then marriage asks them to prove it (Mike Mason). Through it all, God asks us to prove HIM in the way we treat each other. See John 13:34-35. --A vow is like staking our lives on something so powerful only death can put an end to it. My faith in Jesus Christ is like that. Some days I feel spiritual, and at other times doubts plague me. But I dont turn away from God, despite how I feel today. Good marriages are built on the same principle. The partners are devoted to each other, but they also have a commitment to something [and especially Someone] higher than themselves. (Cecil Murphey) --The greatest thing you can do for your kids is to love each other well. Maintaining a happy, healthy marriage relationship will bring needed peace & stability to their lives & provides a great example for them to follow later. Make loving your spouse your priority. (Glen & Christie Hoos) --Love doesnt do its dirty laundry for all the world to see. I cringe whenever I hear a husband humiliating his wife in public or a wife making snide remarks about her husband. If they do that in public, what do they do in private? A friend once told me, There are times when Ive been sorry I opened my mouth. But there has never been a time Ive been sorry I kept silent. (Ray Pritchard) --Its okay to have nothing to say …unless youre talking. He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity (Prov. 21:23). I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgement for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned (Matthew 12:37). A wise mans heart guides his mouth, and his lips promote instruction (Proverbs 16:23). --If you have played the fool and exalted yourself, or if you have planned evil, clap your hand over your mouth! For as churning the milk produces butter, and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger and strife --Prov. 30:32-33. A good time to keep your mouth shut is when youre in deep water (or even more so, before). Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near (Philippians 4:5) --You cannot separate the horizontal from the vertical. You cannot talk one way to God and another way to your family, friends, etc. Were warned about the power of the tongue. James wrote, with it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so -James 3:9-10 ESV. (Emerson Eggerichs) --Many marriages consist of two people who have become enemies. Consider this: Its hard to hate someone youre praying for. Its also hard to sling mud on a person who is praying for you. Does your marriage break out in all-out combat on a consistent basis? Try bombing your battles with prayer instead of anger. It brings effective peace talks to the conflict. But dont just pray for your imperfect spouse before or after the battle. Pray with him or her during the battle. Its hard to launch scud missiles when youre on your knees praying for each other. (Stephen Kendrick) --Just because youre married, it doesnt give you a license to be disrespectful in the way in which you speak to your spouse--no matter how he or she speaks to you. As told in Gods word, put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips --Proverbs 4:24. Treat your spouse as unto the Lord and you will do well. The tongue has the power of life and death (Proverbs 18:21). --Make loving your spouse a top priority, 2nd only to your relationship with Christ. Questions for you and your spouse to discuss: Does the example of a loving, committed marriage have an impact on others? What will people say was the legacy of our marriage? What steps can we each take to redeem the days we have left together? (Bob & Cheryl Moeller) Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12) --Gods ability to love unlovely people is available to us. We can open our hearts to Gods love and in essence say to Him, Lord, you know the person with whom I live; you know I have great difficulty in seeing anything positive about him (or her); but I know that you love my spouse. I want to be your channel for loving him (or her) too. Use my hands, my tongue, and my body to express your love, (Dr. Gary Chapman) by Cindy and Steve Wright
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 07:44:49 +0000
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