💛🧡🤎🍂🎞️As a young Christian, I read a number of Christian books on marriage. All they said about the duties of spouses was that wives should submit to their husbands and husbands should love their wives. Just two things.
💛🧡🤎🍂🎞️SUBMISSION AND LOVE AREN’T ENOUGH
Then in 1980, a Christian brother got married. After his wedding, he said to me, “Brother Anselm, all those things they said in Christian literature on marriage are just not correct, they’re grossly incomplete.” I never really understood what he meant then because I was still very much single at the time. But several years later, as the Lord began to furnish me with His truth to teach married couples, it became obvious that submission and love aren’t enough to power a marriage. They are very good, perfectly biblical but not enough to supply the spiritual turbocharging kind of power that marriage requires. Thankfully, God has given us so much more, and they are all in the pages of the Bible. Hallelujah!!
💛🧡🤎🍂🎞️YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE
Your spiritual life came alive the instant you believed in Jesus Christ. In other words, contact with the living Christ lit up your spiritual life. But 1 Peter chapter 1 shows that it is not enough to have bare faith. Good as your faith is, you still need to enrich it with several other important spiritual qualities to make your walk with God certain to end in Heaven. And our anchor scripture tells you to exercise diligence in ensuring that you add all the necessary qualities to your faith.
💛🧡🤎🍂🎞️THE PHYSICAL PARALLEL OF YOUR SPIRITUAL LIFE
Sir/Ma, your love life is the physical equivalent of your spiritual life.
Your love life, after years of dormancy, comes into active life through marriage to your spouse. But the fact of your living together under the same roof and sharing the same name isn’t enough. Just as it is required that you fortify your faith with other spiritual qualities and godly character traits, so also do you need to equip your marriage with several furnishings that will enable you to live happily and victoriously together until death finally separates you.
So then, what are these qualities you must furnish your marriage with? We’re looking at one of them today.
💛🧡🤎🍂🎞️KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORTH OF YOUR MARRIAGE AND YOUR SPOUSE!
I wish I could scream the subheading above into your ears all day long because it is so important.
So many have foolishly tossed away solid and promising marriages because of ignorance of the subheading above.
Hebrews 13:4 tells us that marriage is honourable. So your matrimony isn’t ordinary, even though it is true that several marriages take place every week. Your union isn’t common. It is as unique and as special as the marriage of Adam and Eve, when they were the only couple on the face of the earth.
💛🧡🤎🍂🎞️EVERY COUPLE IS THE FIRST AND LAST
And you need to know that every couple is the first and last of its kind. There has never been a couple like you and your spouse, and there will never be another after you are gone. So recognise your distinctiveness and highly value what you have!
💛🧡🤎🍂🎞️MARRIED TO ROYALTY!!
Secondly, your spouse isn’t ordinary, “mere,” or commonplace. No! Your spouse is a unique species, the only one of their kind. You probably haven’t heard this before but I’m sent to authoritatively tell you. Your spouse is an excellent gift from the God of Heaven. They’re a bestowal of His divine favour on you. Let me put it another way that you can better understand. In giving you your spouse, God has given you His daughter or son to marry because all human beings are basically children of God. And if your spouse is born again, then realise that God has given you His priest and king (Revelation 1:6a) to marry!
Knowledge of the worth of your marriage and your spouse will make you hold them dear to your heart and treat/handle them with love, respect, and utmost care. And when you do, your union will last.
💛🧡🤎🍂🎞️PEOPLE RARELY LOSE THEIR SCHOOL CREDENTIALS
Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Why is it that people rarely lose their school certificates, diplomas, and college degrees?” The answer is simple: they know the worth of those documents. They represent their years of academic toil and sweat in the youthful season of their lives. And so they don’t toy with them. They place them in a clean file and hide the file in the most secure place in their bedroom. And for their entire lifetime, nothing harms those credentials.
Dearly beloved, know the value of your marriage and your spouse. Carefully guard them and treat them with deep love, profound respect, and utmost care, and they will last for you.🤎
💕❤️ Tonight’s Bedroom Assignment:
Reread this devotional together just before bedtime and discuss it with an open and sincere heart.
📚📖✒️ Quotes For Reflection:
“True love attracts suffering and a lot of times the suffering comes through the same person you’ve sacrificed time, energy and perhaps much material resources to serve.”(Anselm Ahman. Lovebirds’ Devotional, October 1, 2024)
✝️ Altar Call:
Jesus Christ is calling you! Come to Him today and be saved!
🌡️⚗️ Scientific Info To Boost Your Marriage:
“Frequent sexual activity (defined in many studies as 1 to 2 times a week) is linked to a lower risk of fatal heart disease. Physiologically, sex acts as moderate physical activity, which can improve heart rate variability and blood pressure.”
🎸🎷🪘 Anointed Music Section