| 09.21.08 Marriages that Please the Lord |
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Marriages That Please the Lord God’s Instructions For A Healthy Marriage Scripture Lesson: Ephesians 5:21-33 “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Ephesians 5:21 The starting point for a successful marriage is for both husband and wife to love and serve Christ. The starting place in resolving conflicts in your marriage is to allow the Holy Spirit to examine your commitment to Jesus Christ. At the heart of most marriage problems is self-centeredness. “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” Philippians 2:5-8 (NIV) God’s will for us husbands is that we will love our wives enough to die for them. We men are to love our wives the same way Christ loved His bride, the church. He loved her by suffering and dying for her. The sanctification process of my wife is to be my primary goal as a husband. I am to so treat her that she will become more and more like Jesus. As a husband, I am to daily seek to “find out what pleases the Lord,” and then encourage my wife and family to do the same. Leaders go first. We men are to always take the initiative in asking the simple question: “What pleases the Lord in this decision we are about to make?” Husbands are to submit to the Lord and wives are to submit to the husband as the husband submits to the Lord. In every case, we are commanded to submit to someone who is seeking to serve us. The bottom line for a successful marriage is a proper example. Our focus is to be Christ who is the perfect model of what it means to be a good spouse. |