God Has an Amazing Plan in Mind for Your Marriage
Staying together in marriage is not easy. It requires extreme patience, empathy, and understanding.
I have found the #1 rule for long-term marriage: “Never doubt God’s wisdom in putting you together.”
Here is how that plays out in real life:
1. Your spouse is the exact person you need.
I know what you’re thinking: “God must HATE me if He gave me this person!” Actually, the longer you live in partnership, the more you realize that “opposites do attract.” My deficiencies are the exact areas my partner is strong in.
That’s what “partnership” is about. The qualities you are missing God has supplied in them. They balance you. They complement you. That’s a huge part of what you loved about them in the first place. Next time they see something from a totally different perspective than you, don’t get angry…tell them, “thank you!”
2. God’s sovereignty was at work in your match.
I still remember the day in the 10th grade walking behind Melanie toward the lunch room. I didn’t know her at all. Suddenly, a voice spoke into my mind: “That’s the girl you’re going to MARRY!” Seven years later, that’s exactly what happened.
Abraham sent his steward over 1000 miles to find a wife for his son, Isaac (without Facebook!). He asked God to let the first girl who offered to water his camels be “The One.” Out walked a girl named Rebekah who did that exact thing and the rest is history. Rest in God’s plan in selecting the absolute perfect partner for you.
3. God can even correct your mistakes.
“What if I married the wrong person?” Most of us have thought that! “Can God take a WRONG choice you made years ago…and make it into a RIGHT choice for your future?”
Google Maps does it every day. If you turn on the wrong street, the algorithm automatically gives you a new path to the destination. You don’t go back home and start over. Surely GOD can take your mistakes, change you both, and chart a new path toward a happy future!
4. Looking backward never helped any marriage.
You can’t “unscramble eggs.” The more I meditate on how badly I want out of a marriage the less effort I put toward making it better.
Don’t be hopeless. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:7). Get a vision of a future filled with companionship and happiness. See your family of children, their spouses, grandchildren, and legacy before you.
Why not commit the next 90 days to giving your marriage 100%? Quit ruminating about the past. Seek to serve them, honor them, show them affection, romance them, and lift them.
God has a plan for your marriage. He’s never wrong and He never fails.
“Never doubt God’s wisdom in putting you together.”