Monday, July 9, 2018

Marriage is HARD and God created it. Tough Questions. Prayers #11

It is hard not to experience a trip of a lifetime and not stand in the awe and wonder of a God who crated the heavens and the earth.  Majestic.... perfect...   and mighty. 

After six days of being wowed by God's creation and glory, it is kind of hard to get back to work and look at the 'flat land' that is right outside my windows.  Well..now I do live on the dike and it is pretty powerful as I look beyond it at the actual LAKE....but I hope you can kind of sort of imagine what I am trying to convey. 

God creates. 

If you have never been to the mountains or the Pacific Coast...WOW!   I know there are beautiful spots around here, but taking a Gondola up some 7000 feet to view these snow covered places is indeed -- majestic. 

God created marriage.  

Today God reminded me that He designed marriage.  When a  phone call came to me and my marriage turn a very dramatic turn, I asked myself ....what do I want?  

I wanted to WIN.  At that time, my heart was hurt, but I didn't want to loose.  Much happened, hearts changed, hearts hurt, and yet ...God did a miracle.  WE understand and watched it happen.  WE got married very young.  I didn't truly understand God's purpose for marriage.  Now I do.  

 Recently, I was contacted by a wife to pray.  I haven't asked her this question yet....but I will.  

What does God want you to do?   And I will remind her that God's direction and plan is best.  God can and will bring beauty out of ashes.  

After spending a week with my man, enjoying a part of the world we have never seen -- our only regret was that our kids could not experience it with us.  And we prayed that one day we could return and bring them.  Our kids came about because of a union.  A union of a man and a woman - a marriage.  

My kids played a big part in the healing of our marriage.  I did stick it out ....and waited on God because I did not want to look into their eyes and tell them that I gave up.  

So, I am not going to advise any woman to stay in a marriage because of physical or mental abuse, but I am going to ask .....is God wanting you to pray and intercede for your marriage while  your husband is turning his back on Him? 

  Is God wanting you to stick it out a bit longer? 

 Only GOD can answer that and if you can't HEAR Him...then you must seek HIM as He will speak and until He does...stay still.  

My prayer today is even shorter than yesterday's thoughts.  Very simple --

 Lord, speak to her...IN Jesus name.  Amen.  

I looked on line to find the best way to express what a marriage in God's eyes looks like...and I found this.  I pray it will help you -- or remind you.    If you have been married  a LONG time and your kids are now older and yet,  you are thinking that  maybe you are only married because of the kids.....then read this and begin to pray.  God wants you happy -- Your marriage can come alive again.  And if you are the one, knowing your marriage is NOT what you want, then I pray you will read this and seek God as to what to do next.  Because the fun and happiness that we experienced as husband and wife this past week, is a gift that GOD wants many to experience.  You may not be gifted a trip of a lifetime....but then again,  I don't doubt what God can do.  Ask.  

 Michelle 

 I liked how John Piper said  it this way:  




Marriage Is God’s Doing
There are at least four ways to see this explicitly or implicitly in Genesis 2:18–25.
1. Marriage was God’s design. 
Marriage is God’s doing because it was His design in the creation of man as male and female. This was made plain earlier in Genesis 1:27–28: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.'”
But it is also clear in the flow of thought in Genesis 2. In verse 18, it is God Himself who decrees that man’s solitude is not good, and it is God Himself who sets out to complete one of the central designs of creation, namely, man and woman in marriage: “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Don’t miss that central and all-important statement. God Himself will make a being perfectly suited for him—a wife.
This text ends in verses 24–25 with the words: “They shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” In other words, this is all moving toward marriage.
2. God gave away the first bride. 
Marriage is also God’s doing because He took the role of being the first Father to give away the bride. Genesis 2:22 says: “And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.” He didn’t hide her and make Adam seek. He made her; then He brought her. And now, though she was His by virtue of creation, He gave her to the man in this absolutely new kind of relationship called marriage, unlike every other relationship in the world.
3. God spoke the design of marriage into existence. 
Marriage is also God’s doing because He spoke the design of marriage into existence. He did this in verse 24: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Who is talking in verse 24? The writer of Genesis is talking. And what did Jesus say about the writer of Genesis? He said it was Moses (Luke 24:44). He also believed that Moses was inspired by God, so that what Moses was saying, God was saying. We can see this if we look carefully at Matthew 19:4–5: “[Jesus] answered, ‘Have you not read that he [God] who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said [Note: God said!], “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?'” Jesus said that the words of Genesis 2:24 are God’s words, even though they were written by Moses.
Therefore, marriage is God’s doing because God spoke the earliest design of it into existence—”A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
4. God performs the two-become-one-flesh union. 
The fourth way that marriage is God’s doing is seen in the fact that God Himself performs the union referred to in the words “become one flesh.” That union is at the heart of what marriage is.
Genesis 2:24 is God’s word of institution for marriage. But just as it was God who took the woman from the flesh of man (Genesis 2:21), it is God who in each marriage ordains and performs a uniting called one flesh. Man does not create this. God does. And it is not in man’s power to destroy. This is implicit here in Genesis 2:24, but Jesus makes it explicit in Mark 10:8–9. He quotes Genesis 2:24, then adds a comment that explodes like thunder with the glory of marriage. “‘The two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
When a couple speaks their vows, it is not a man or a woman or a pastor or parent who is the main actor—the main doer. God is. God joins a husband and a wife into a one-flesh union. The world does not know this. Which is one of the reasons why marriage is treated so casually. And Christians often act like they don’t know it, which is one of the reasons marriage in the church is not seen as the wonder it is.
Marriage Is for God’s Glory
Marriage is not only from Him and through Him, it is also for Him. Marriage is designed by God to display His glory in a way that no other event or institution does. The way to see this most clearly is to connect Genesis 2:24 with its use in Ephesians 5:31–32. In Genesis 2:24, God says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” What kind of relationship is this? How are these two people held together? Can they walk away from this relationship? Can they go from spouse to spouse? Is this relationship rooted in romance? Sexual desire? Need for companionship? Cultural convenience?
In Genesis 2:24, the words “hold fast to his wife” and the words “they shall become one flesh” point to marriage as a sacred covenant rooted in commitments that stand against every storm “as long as we both shall live.”
But that is only implicit here. It becomes explicit when the mystery of marriage is more fully revealed in Ephesians 5:31–32. The Apostle Paul quotes Genesis 2:24 in verse 31: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” Then he gives it this all-important interpretation in verse 32: “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” In other words, marriage is patterned after Christ’s covenant commitment to His church.
Christ thought of Himself as the bridegroom coming for his bride, the true people of God (Matthew 9:15, 25:1, John 3:29). Paul knew his ministry was to gather the bride—the true people of God who would trust Christ. His calling was to betroth the church to her husband, Jesus. Paul puts it like this in 2 Corinthians 11:2: “I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.”
Christ knew He would have to pay for His bride with His own blood. He called this relationship the new covenant—”This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). This is what Paul is referring to when he says that marriage is a great mystery: “I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” Christ obtained the church by His blood and formed a new covenant with her, an unbreakable “marriage.”
The ultimate thing we can say about marriage is that it exists for God’s glory. That is, it exists to display God. Now we see how: Marriage is patterned after Christ’s covenant relationship to His redeemed people, the church. And therefore, the highest meaning and the most ultimate purpose of marriage is to put the covenant relationship of Christ and His church on display. That is why marriage exists. If you are married, that is why you are married. If you hope to be, that should be your dream.
Keeping covenant with our spouse is as important as telling the truth about God’s covenant with us in Jesus Christ. Marriage is not mainly about being or staying in love. It’s mainly about telling the truth with our lives. It’s about portraying something true about Jesus Christ and the way He relates to His people. It is about showing in real life the glory of the Gospel.
Jesus died for sinners. He forged a covenant in the white-hot heat of His suffering in our place. He made an imperfect bride His own with the price of His blood and covered her with the garments of His own righteousness. He said, “I am with you … to the end of the age… . I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Matthew 28:20, Hebrews 13:5).
Marriage is meant by God to put that Gospel reality on display in the world. 
 ©2009 John Piper




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