This article was submitted by Pastor Walker to The New Bulletin
located in Old Fort, North Carolina. It is a weekly article.It is posted foryour reading enjoyment.

                                                                                              

Dr. Tom Walker

Article for Oct.30-2012

A Happy Marriage

There are many unhappy, married people today. If that be the case, it is certainly not what God designed that marriage be. I believe God wants every couple to have a happy marriage.

Marriages often fail because there are not two people working hard to have the right kind of marriage. A model marriage does not occur by accident, but it comes to people who are not careless about their relationship with their spouse. If a marriage is one sided, with only one working to make it succeed, then it could be destined for failure.

God set up the home in the Garden of Eden. Gen 2:20-24 says, "And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.' Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."

A happy marriage begins with a good start. God desires that believers in Christ marry another believer. 2 Cor 6:14-16 says, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." The reasoning of the Apostle Paul is that you do not yoke together animals of different kinds, if you expect things to work as they should. You do not yoke together a dog and an ox. It is the proper thing to do to yoke oxen with oxen. It is a good thing to start a marriage relationship with spiritual compatibility.

If a person does not listen to God and marries an unbeliever, then it is not the will of God for a divorce to break the unequal yoke. The saved marriage partner should seek by lip and by life to point his or her lost marriage partner to the Lord. 1 Peter 3:1-2 states: "Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear." By living the right kind of life, some lost marriage partners seek the need for salvation and come to Christ for the free gift of eternal life (Eph. 2:8,9).

Love is also an essential element in marriage. Love is not lust. To best define love, or divine love that can operate in and through us, you need to think about John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in simple, direct statement is made, "For God so loved the
world", but don't stop there. The Word of God goes on to say, "That He gave His only Begotten Son." The
essence of love is not so much taking but it is giving.

Love is not selfish; instead, it focuses in on the person who is the object of your love. A loveless marriage is a failing marriage. Love must be cultivated and cared for in a love relationship. Let's use a fireside analogy. When the fire burns low and you want it to burn brighter, you put the poker in the coals and stir them. Why is it so difficult for us to understand that in marriage relationships the same thing needs to apply?

Don't neglect or become careless about your love life in the marriage bond. Do you tell your marriage partner that you love him or love her? You might say, "She knows I love her." Well, she may know that, but she still wants to hear it come from your lips out of your heart. It helps to hear you say it, but don't dismiss the fact you are to prove it as well in your conduct and attitudes. If what you do does not match up with what you say, your marriage partner will have problems with you.

In addition, commitment is an important ingredient of a marriage that works. At the marriage altar most vows incorporate these words: "For richer or poorer, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, till death shall part you." Almost everyone wants to stick with a marriage partner who is getting richer, getting better all the time, and who is never sick. But your vows tell you if your marriage partner doesn't have much money, if he or she is getting worse instead of better, or if health begins to fail in your husband of wife, you are to be committed to the degree you will follow through with the commitment you made at the marriage altar. You should not renege on the vows you give at the wedding ceremony. People committed to their marriage relationship do not have sexual affairs with other people.

It is people who are committed to a good cause who succeed in social life. In comparison, it is partners who are committed to one another in the marriage bond that make a successful marriage. If your marriage is not what it ought to be, don't blame it all on your marriage partner. More blame might rest on you for the failure than the one to whom who are married.

Work toward making your relationship to your husband or wife what it should be.

 

 

 

Article by Dr. Tom Walker

Pastor-Zion Hill Baptist Church

 

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