Marriage: Bondage or Promise
by Lynda Switzer
Promise: Strong marriages create strong families that create strong churches that create a strong witness for Christ to a hurting world.
How Do We Approach our Marriage: Bondage or Promise?
As husbands and wives we make lots of decisions every day, some of which greatly impact our marriages and the atmosphere of our relationship with our spouse. These decisions either feed the fleshly appetites or enhance the spiritual depths of our relationship. These decisions set direction toward bondage or promise in our marriages.
Some examples of fleshly actions that can bring bondage into our marriages might be angry words, swearing, putting down our spouse, lying to one another, allowing covetous desires to rule, or spending time in idolatrous pursuits. Such actions feed the bondages of walls and separation in a marriage.
In contrast, some examples of actions that bring hope and promise into our marriages include prayerfully committing our marriage to God every day, showing kindness to our spouse, humbling ourselves and acknowledging when we’ve blown it in the relationship, extending forgiveness to our spouse, showing patience, and seeking to speak and express true love to our spouse in a variety of ways every day.
None of us want a marriage of bondage. We all long for and desire more and more of God’s promises to come forth in our marriage. As Christ lives within us, we can choose every day to be a spouse through which the beautiful peace and joy of the Kingdom of God is expressed in our marriage.
Romantic Notions
Ask God to fill you afresh with His love. Express His love with strong doses of joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, longsuffering. Watch your marriage move out of bondage into promise. Blessings be upon you, your mate, and your marriage!
How Do We Approach our Marriage: Bondage or Promise?
As husbands and wives we make lots of decisions every day, some of which greatly impact our marriages and the atmosphere of our relationship with our spouse. These decisions either feed the fleshly appetites or enhance the spiritual depths of our relationship. These decisions set direction toward bondage or promise in our marriages.
Some examples of fleshly actions that can bring bondage into our marriages might be angry words, swearing, putting down our spouse, lying to one another, allowing covetous desires to rule, or spending time in idolatrous pursuits. Such actions feed the bondages of walls and separation in a marriage.
In contrast, some examples of actions that bring hope and promise into our marriages include prayerfully committing our marriage to God every day, showing kindness to our spouse, humbling ourselves and acknowledging when we’ve blown it in the relationship, extending forgiveness to our spouse, showing patience, and seeking to speak and express true love to our spouse in a variety of ways every day.
None of us want a marriage of bondage. We all long for and desire more and more of God’s promises to come forth in our marriage. As Christ lives within us, we can choose every day to be a spouse through which the beautiful peace and joy of the Kingdom of God is expressed in our marriage.
Romantic Notions
Ask God to fill you afresh with His love. Express His love with strong doses of joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, longsuffering. Watch your marriage move out of bondage into promise. Blessings be upon you, your mate, and your marriage!