MARRIAGE: A GIFT FROM GOD - Part 1

MARRIAGE: A GIFT FROM GOD (1)

(Family Life - 2010-11-07)

I count it a great privilege to share God's Word with you today, it's my prayer that there will be a transformation in your marriage and home as you go through this article in Jesus' name. This month by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, I will be looking at Marriage: A Gift From God.

 God's Word says: A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: withersoever it turneth, it prospereth (Proverbs 17:8).

When a man is presented with a gift, how he sees it will determine how much value he will place on it, and how much value he places on it will determine how much he prospers by it. If it is precious to him, he will guard it jealously and be filled with excitement whenever he remembers it. Marriage is a gift from God.

 Marriage is not an invention of man God is the originator of marriage. God's Word says: And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man (Gen 2:18,22-23).

 Adam received his wife as a gift from God. In a sense it is still true that a man receives his wife from God. God's Word says: House and riches are the inheritance of fathers and a prudent wife is from the Lord (Prov 19:14). Marriage is an expression of God's favour. God's says: Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord (Proverbs 18:22).

How Do You See Marriage?

Your perspective of issues often affects your confession and your confession determines your possession (Mark 11:23).

 Caleb and Joshua exempted themselves from the ten other spies who saw themselves as grasshoppers. They saw themselves as being well able to possess the land of promise so they spoke it out; and it became theirs (Numbers 13:30).

 When an intending couple are about to get married, it should be a thing of joy, congratulations and gladness. People should rejoice with them and encourage them. Just like in a race all run to win the prize, in marriage all must press to experience the beauty and honour it bestows (Philippians 3:14). Therefore all believers must encourage the harmony and stability of the marriage union and the family unit in the Body of Christ. If you desire harmony then sow harmony in the homes and families around you and your family too will experience the same.

 The world and it's ways of quarrelling, fighting, separation and divorce, has marked out marriage as an evil. However, believers who know God's purpose for establishing the family must be pace-setters in our world. If there is nothing to distinguish your home from that of those in the world. If you quarrel, fight, and live in bitterness and unforgiveness, just as the world does, then there's nothing enviable or different about you.

 The world bemoans the marriage institution. It purports that those within are rushing to get out while those without are rushing to get in. The world sees it thus, and so it is for them. If the believer agrees with this view he can experience nothing better, nothing more honourable.

Marriage is not a matter to joke about as the world does, neither do good marriages drop from the sky. Rather, marriage must be worked at to produce honourable fruits. There are times of self denial, times of swallowing ones pride and saying, ''I am sorry'' Those times are like seeds. Then there are times of great excitement and tremendous happiness - all these are honourable fruits of marriage. But fruits come after seeds are sown. The planting time proceeds the time of harvest. No seed time, no harvest (Genesis 8:22) Sow good seeds of patience and forgiveness and you'll reap an enviable marriage.

 Look at this testimony: "I used to worship in a place where the pastors there believe that 'misunderstanding brings about understanding.' One day, the lady pastor asked me if I have had any serious quarrel with my wife (then my fiancée) and I said, 'No'. She said we had not started, that until we quarrel and fought, we would not know if we truly loved each other.

 After our marriage, we started having problems in our home. But when I came here, I heard the Bishop say 'I have not had the first argument with my wife.'

I told my wife that if what the man of God is saying is true, then we have been in the wrong place and have often been fed with the wrong food spiritually.

We told ourselves, 'What this man of God has seen that is making his marriage sweet, we also must discover it. And then I was in the Word of Faith Bible Institute (WOFBI) full time programme. After each lecture I would go back home and teach my wife the same thing.

Today, to the glory of God, we don't have misunderstandings anymore!"

- Ibiang, A. I.

As believers in Christ Jesus, being redeemed from the world and it's standard means being redeemed from disgrace to grace. Jesus said, In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer: I have overcome the World (John 16:33).

So, anyone outside Christ has signed up for tribulation, pressure and frustration. The world has nothing but these to offer. Any marriage or family founded upon any other premise but Christ cannot escape difficulties and troubles. No wonder, married unbelievers see themselves as trapped.