Laws For A Happy Marriage?…or is there a more Excellent way?

Over the last month and a half Bonita and I have been helping out with a marriage growth and support group.

It has been good!

In the first lesson, the speaker taught that God has made the world and has made it with certain laws. If you live according to those laws then it will be peace, happiness and prosperity, but if you do not keep those laws... do not expect the peace, happiness and prosperity to follow.

Just as the law of gravity is for all, even for those who do not believe in it. You jump off the bridge, don’t expect to fly upward just because you verbally deny the law of gravity.

The speaker then began to speak about the first two laws that God has established in His creation. The Law of Priority and the Law of Pursuit.

In the Law of Priority he taught that God made the marriage relationship to be second only to the relationship between a person and their relationship with God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God/man. When this law is kept, and the marriage is given the place of priority that it was design for then each spouse sacrificially invests their lives into the life of the other. When the marriage is made a priority…not in word only [easy] but in practice [difficult] then the marriage prospers and is joyous!

The second law he spoke about was the Law of Pursuit. This second law is tied tightly to the first. We will pursue that which our heart deeply longs for, that which we highly treasure. When we first enter a relationship and get married we are constantly trying to impress the other person.

Constantly trying to put our best foot forward, trying to portray our best image.

Why?

Because we want to attain the prize…we want to win the treasure.

Then, unfortunately, unless you constantly invest in your “treasure”, our common mistake is to think we are on a scavenger hunt…and begin to look for other treasure, putting the treasure of our spouse in our pocket, to be taken out when convenient...to our time table.

When we cease pursuing, when we stop investing…then the relationship begins to crumble. No relationship is static…if there isn’t constant investing…then the withdraws begin…feelings of love doesn’t sit in the account…it can’t be stored up or saved.


After watching the first lesson with Bonita…something was eating at me, in my insides!

I really don’t think it was something…I believe it was some One.

What the speaker was saying sounded good…it sounded right…I had heard similar teachings before…but it just wasn’t sitting right.

Jesus said that when the Spirit of Truth comes…that He will guide God’s people into all truth…and He [Holy Spirit] will glorify Me [Jesus].

The Holy Spirit’s primary ministry is not to lead God’s people into various laws or principles…it is to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ…and the gospel of Jesus and His amazing grace!

I agreed with the speaker that marriage must be made a high priority, and I also agreed with him that we must constantly pursue our spouse, as a life long activity.

Where I disagreed with his teaching, was I don’t think that viewing Priority and Pursuing as Laws is going to give us the proper motivation for a healthy, strong and God glorifying marriage…only gospel motivation can do that.

When I share next time...I will explain why.