In our marriages we need to know how to fight. And I'm not talking about a marriage counselor's usual advice on knowing how to work through disagreement. That's valuable information, but what I would like to discuss here this week is knowing how to fight the spiritual battles in marriage - how to fight the Enemy who is the real enemy of marriage.
Satan hates vibrant, healthy, stable, loving Christian marriages. He will do everything in his power to destroy every one he can. Don't think that he won't target you, and it won't happen to your marriage. I never dreamed that he would have been able to wreak the havoc in our marriage that he did. It's too long a story to go into in a blog, but he came in through a loop hole in our marriage and nearly destroyed it. If we hadn't believed God's Word more than our emotions and desires, we would have been a divorce statistic.
God's Word is the first weapon in fighting the Enemy in your marriage. It is essential that we establish the fact that God's Word is the standard for our marriage - not our friends' well-meaning advice, the marriage counselor's instructions (although they may be good), Hollywood or romance novels. George Barna's group has revealed that even among born-again believers, only 40% consult the Bible when making important moral or ethical decisions. Have we completely lost our minds? God's Word should be the final authority for our lives, our marriages and our decision making.
My husband received counsel during our marital upheaval from a godly well-meaning head of a large ministry to go home and just ask me, "Well, do you want a divorce?" Which he did.
I refused to answer him. If I had followed the course of my emotions or friends' advice, I would have said, "Yes." But I simply could not. My commitment to Jesus and our daughters took priority over my own personal desires.
I'm so glad that my husband and I stood on the solid rock when we hit bottom. It stayed solid and sure, and we weathered the storm. You can too.
Golden, there's no couple on earth that's been married as long as you and I have that hasn't had that same conversation (or argument). Thank the Lord, I couldn't say it either. Great post! Hello to Blaine and the family. Enjoying the books!
ReplyDeleteYes, only through Jesus did we make it, but we did! We begin a marriage class at our church in the morning. Little did I know at the time we were going through our marital difficulties that we would one day be helping troubled marriages. PTL!
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