For our marriage, this post describes how including God is the best thing we can do.
Prayer for Our Marriage
The Christian faith is built on the foundation of the marriage between Christ and the church. One blessing we can access as believers is that God knew us even before our marriages were established. He prayed for us, and he gave his life for us. This always precedes the coming together that we understand through getting married. Because this is the foundation, we can always depend on it. That makes prayer so powerful in our lives, especially our marriage. It connects us through faith to God, who was there for us before birth. And when we do this together, we create closeness and intimacy with our spouses in an exceptional way that can’t be reproduced otherwise.
The first thing we can do that is a blessing to our marriage is pray. Prayer can never be overestimated in terms of the positive impact that it can have on our lives.
Worship for Our Marriage
Of course, prayer is a kind of worship. And so is a devotional. But the kind of worship that blesses our marriage is the kind that takes place through corporal or congregational worship. The opportunity to pray together at the altar, to be encouraged by the same sermon, to have fellowship and greet other believers, and especially to partake in communion together all give a powerful presence of God and His love, mercy, and power to our lives.
When we participate in these acts of grace, something indescribable happens, but we know that’s good, and we know that’s helping to make our marriage better in a way that nothing else can. Sure, we can take a vacation to destress, have date nights, and enjoy one another’s company. We can do therapy, self-help, and so many other things for our marriage, and yet when we worship, the presence of God enters in a truly magnificent way.
We are made to worship God. And in marriage, we are blessed to continue the purpose for our lives to continue worshipping together. It’s just a continuation of what God intends for us, and when we do it together, we follow the same pattern of blessing prescribed for us all along.
Peace for Our Marriage
One thing that we’ve learned is that God is the source of peace in our marriage. That doesn’t mean that we’re perfect. It means the opposite. It means we can’t achieve peace in our household, life together, or marriage without God’s peace that “passes all understanding.” The peace that we receive from God is not like any other peace. It does not fade away. If we are not experiencing it, it’s because of us, not because God has run out of it. This peace that God gives agrees with all of his other qualities and characteristics, namely the Holy Spirit.
We encounter so many trials in this world that we are learning to appreciate our love at home and in the marriage God established for us. We sometimes have to remember that we didn’t establish our marriages. We stood before a pastor and a community of supporters who witnessed what God did for us on our behalf. I will be the first to admit that sometimes I can forget this.
I can think that I was the one who somehow created our marriage, that I own it, and it’s mine to do what I please. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The marriage we receive from God is a blessing that we don’t receive without this gift from God and the added blessing. Thinking about it this way, we are more prepared to love what God intends for us.
Love is the cornerstone of marriage. We return to it when we feel frustrated, tired, or lonely. Love reminds us what we should do for our spouse and even how we should do it gently. Love actively participates in our lives, especially in a healthy marriage.
Just like love is active in the Scripture passage that describes love, 1 Corinthians 13, when it says that love is patient, love is kind, and describes what love does and doesn’t do. This teaches that love is not passive but that it is always present and working for us.
God for Our Marriage
All this to say, the best thing we could ever do for our marriage is surrendering our marriage to God. This means to avail ourselves to listen to God through His word to spend time together in worship, prayer, learning, and sharing.
What assures me, more than anything else, is knowing that someone is looking out for us, knows better than us, and is always acting on our behalf, in our best interest.
That’s assurance that we can’t pay for, can’t get any other way, and dare I say that we likely don’t fully understand it. But we can know and receive this help from our loving God.
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