Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for opening your heart and sharing this deep burden for marriage. Your longing for strong, pure, joyful marriages that honor God is good, and God Himself shares that desire.
Scripture teaches that marriage is a profound mystery where two become one. It is a compound unity, two persons becoming one flesh, and in that oneness it reflects something of the nature of God Himself, who is one. Jesus also taught that marriage belongs to this present life. When He spoke of the resurrection He said that in the age to come people will neither marry nor be given in marriage but will be like the angels in heaven, affirming that God will raise the dead and give us eternal life. This reminds us that marriage now is a holy gift for this life, meant to point us toward the lasting union we will have with God Himself.
That lasting hope rests on deliverance. Just as God delivered His people from bondage in Egypt through the lamb for the family, so He has delivered us from the deeper bondage of sin through the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The broken bread and the whole meaning of that deliverance show us that true freedom does not come from our own effort to reclaim things from spiritual enemies, but from trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In Him we have forgiveness, cleansing, and power to walk in purity. Any sexual intimacy outside of the lifelong covenant of one man and one woman in marriage, and any practice that distorts that design, is not part of His will, and He calls us to turn from it and to find wholeness in His way.
Your concern about attacks on marriage is understandable, and the Bible does warn that there are spiritual forces opposed to what God has joined together. Yet the Bible also warns about thorns that grow up within the heart and choke fruitfulness. Those thorns are the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust for other things. When those things are allowed to enter, they choke the Word and make a life and a marriage unfruitful. By contrast, those who are like good ground hear the Word, receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundredfold. How glorious it is to see that kind of fruitful Christian life and fruitful marriage.
So I join you in praying for marriages in the body of Christ everywhere, in the years ahead and beyond. I pray that God will strengthen husbands and wives to live in faithful, lifelong covenant as one man and one woman, to guard their intimacy and privacy within that covenant, to know harmony and deep attachment and true accordance with one another, and to see their families blossom in consistent happiness. I pray that every couple will keep their hearts as good soil by hearing and receiving the Word, by turning from every form of sexual immorality and impurity, and by trusting the Lamb of God for daily cleansing and victory. I pray that God will grant fruitfulness, not only in children as He wills, but in love, joy, peace, and every good work that comes from abiding in Christ.
May the Lord keep you and your marriage close to Jesus, rooted in His Word, protected by His grace, and bearing abundant fruit for His glory.
Scripture teaches that marriage is a profound mystery where two become one. It is a compound unity, two persons becoming one flesh, and in that oneness it reflects something of the nature of God Himself, who is one. Jesus also taught that marriage belongs to this present life. When He spoke of the resurrection He said that in the age to come people will neither marry nor be given in marriage but will be like the angels in heaven, affirming that God will raise the dead and give us eternal life. This reminds us that marriage now is a holy gift for this life, meant to point us toward the lasting union we will have with God Himself.
That lasting hope rests on deliverance. Just as God delivered His people from bondage in Egypt through the lamb for the family, so He has delivered us from the deeper bondage of sin through the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The broken bread and the whole meaning of that deliverance show us that true freedom does not come from our own effort to reclaim things from spiritual enemies, but from trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In Him we have forgiveness, cleansing, and power to walk in purity. Any sexual intimacy outside of the lifelong covenant of one man and one woman in marriage, and any practice that distorts that design, is not part of His will, and He calls us to turn from it and to find wholeness in His way.
Your concern about attacks on marriage is understandable, and the Bible does warn that there are spiritual forces opposed to what God has joined together. Yet the Bible also warns about thorns that grow up within the heart and choke fruitfulness. Those thorns are the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust for other things. When those things are allowed to enter, they choke the Word and make a life and a marriage unfruitful. By contrast, those who are like good ground hear the Word, receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundredfold. How glorious it is to see that kind of fruitful Christian life and fruitful marriage.
So I join you in praying for marriages in the body of Christ everywhere, in the years ahead and beyond. I pray that God will strengthen husbands and wives to live in faithful, lifelong covenant as one man and one woman, to guard their intimacy and privacy within that covenant, to know harmony and deep attachment and true accordance with one another, and to see their families blossom in consistent happiness. I pray that every couple will keep their hearts as good soil by hearing and receiving the Word, by turning from every form of sexual immorality and impurity, and by trusting the Lamb of God for daily cleansing and victory. I pray that God will grant fruitfulness, not only in children as He wills, but in love, joy, peace, and every good work that comes from abiding in Christ.
May the Lord keep you and your marriage close to Jesus, rooted in His Word, protected by His grace, and bearing abundant fruit for His glory.
