Marriage is God's House

This week Rob and I celebrate another year of marriage, and sixteen years of being 'together'.  When we were younger, first dating, and not yet married, we brought a lot of drama into our relationship and caused each other pain and strife.  There were good times, but nothing so much as when we decided to stop running and let the Lord direct our lives. 

Check out this devotional from Urban Alternative - some great thoughts to consider if you are married or considering marriage.

What is the Marriage Covenant?

If you were to come over to my house, I would welcome you inside but there would be a set of rules by which to abide. Likewise, I would need to abide by the rules for your house. For example, in my home, I don’t allow smoking. So if you smoke, you would need to put out your cigarette before you came in my home.

I am able to make these rules and enforce them because it is my house. Marriage is God’s house. He came up with the idea. And it can only run right when it is run by His rules.

What married couples often want to do, though, is to have God’s institution of marriage, yet run it by their own rules. They want to get married in the church so that God will bless their marriage, but then they want to leave God standing at the altar. They want to make up their own rules for how a marriage should be run.

But let me tell you a secret. It is a very powerful secret. Pay attention: You don’t get God’s results without operating by God’s rules. You don’t get God’s blessings in your marriage, and in your home, without following God’s instructions. You don’t enjoy God’s provision, protection, and peace in your relationships without abiding by God’s policies concerning the covenantal union of marriage.

In The Word

Genesis 2:19-24

18-20 God said, "It's not good for the Man to be alone; I'll make him a helper, a companion." So God formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the Man to see what he would name them. Whatever the Man called each living creature, that was its name. The Man named the cattle, named the birds of the air, named the wild animals; but he didn't find a suitable companion.

21-22 God put the Man into a deep sleep. As he slept he removed one of his ribs and replaced it with flesh. God then used the rib that he had taken from the Man to make Woman and presented her to the Man.

23-25 The Man said, "Finally! Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh!  Name her Woman for she was made from Man."  Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and embraces his wife. They become one flesh. The two of them, the Man and his Wife, were naked, but they felt no shame.