Wednesday Devotion and Prayer. June 28, 2023 “Enduring Marriages”
“However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband”—Ephesians 5:33
Sadly, marriage is under attack. It’s being devalued, avoided, redesigned, and mocked. But God designed marriage as a sacred union to be respected and revered, holy before Him. Unlike current cultural trends, marriage is not a legal contract but a covenant with God. It’s His idea, design, and set of laws surrounding it. Human laws do not trump His ways, and He has not given us the freedom to reinvent it. Marriage is vital to God’s plan because it represents the relationship between Jesus Christ and the Church. The breaking down of it on earth is the enemy at work to try and destroy God’s will for the Church. Revelation 19:7 paints the picture of what is to come with Christ and His Church. “Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.” Marriage is something to fight for, just like the Church of Jesus Christ is worth fighting for. If Christians are unwilling to fight for their marriages, how can they stand up and fight for the Church?
Marriage Is God’s Mystery
Believers in Jesus Christ must consider their earthly marriage covenants with reverence and commitment. Ephesians 5:25-33 explains the mystery of earthly marriage, designed to form an unbreakable bond between husband, wife, and God. He reveals the mystery of His Bride, the Church. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through word and to present her to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” Ephesians 5:25-27
Marriage is our God-designed model for what the Church is to become, which is the body of Christ on earth. Ephesians 5:28-30 explains, “In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the Church—for we are members of His body.” Ephesians 5:31 explains God designed marriage as a profound mystery that reveals His eternal plan for Christ and His Church. “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the Church.” Like a physical, earthly marriage, God calls us to purity, as it is key to becoming one with our spouse and with the Church becoming one with Jesus Christ. “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.” (Hebrews 13:4)
Heavenly Father,
Marriage is Your sacred, holy design under Your authority alone. Today holy matrimony, Your vision for the relationship between Jesus and the Church is under attack. But You, O Lord, can strengthen and bind us as one in our marriages so that the enemy cannot tear apart what You have joined together. We ask You today to embolden us to stand up against his assaults and remain faithful to our vows to You and each other.
It’s not by our might or our power that we can stand, but by Your Spirit, who empowers us to withstand the enemy’s attacks against our marriages. Thank you, Father, for daily strengthening and encouraging us to be holy as You are holy. Let us be a picture to the world of Jesus’ unfailing faithfulness to His Church. In Your son Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.
