I’m in a season of life where I attend a lot of weddings and I am impacted by the percentage of young people who are not married. Too many guys pursue a career or think they need a certain dollar figure in the bank before settling down. Too many girls have been raised by single moms or lived in homes where marriage was for convenience and lifestyle needs. We need to remember marriage is a gift from God intended to make our lives more fulfilled, productive and pleasing to Him.
I know some people read this and immediately say ‘hater’, ‘old school’, ‘provincial’. Experience has taught them a traditional view on marriage no longer works in 2019. In a world where change seems to be a constant, many things never change…and some things never should change. Marriage has not changed but the world is trying hard to convince each generation that it has and it needs to. This is a lie.
Marriage is one of the longest standing, never changing core principles of life. Marriage is one of the most important markers in life and in history. A wedding is the opportunity to witness history being made and repeated through a covenant that dates back to creation itself. Marriage is almost as old as life itself and has been around longer than death. Think about that.
God made man first, but right after He gave him a job and put him to work, ‘The Lord God said “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” ‘ Genesis 2:18. These days, too many folks think they know better than God. Man and woman were created separately and uniquely, but we were created FOR each other. The marriage covenant supernaturally unites a man and a woman together because God knows we are better together.
Marriage is a covenant not just a commitment or a contract. Commitments are easily made and easily broken. You commit to an employer, a sports team or washing the car. When the weather changes or a better offer comes along, contracts and commitments can be broken because of the circumstances. Marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman with God. There’s a difference between a marriage civil service and a marriage covenant when God unites two people. A marriage needs God because no one fully knows what they are getting into when they get married, but God does. God knows and He honors his part of the covenant for a lifetime.
God made marriage. God hooked up Adam and Eve before Satan even came on the scene. It’s not ironic that as soon as Adam and Eve were united the enemy decided to show up and speak up. Satan knows marriage is sooo instrumental and powerful in God’s design that his first action was to try and break it up by dividing the young couple from God.
Our lives are meant to be shared and lived with each other. If a man and a woman ‘become as one flesh’ (Genesis 2:24), they are more formidable united together. Two are stronger than one when brought together by God and with God. Bottom line is…Marriage makes us and our lives stronger and better. Marriage fulfills God’s plan for your life.
A battle is always fought for basic values and principles. There is nothing more God-given and basic to humanity than marriage between a man and a woman. Satan tried to tear man apart from God by creating enmity between Adam and Eve. Nothing is different today but the rhetoric has changed. Therefore, the world tries to destroy and marginalize marriage by redefining it. Why??!! ‘We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.’ 1st John 5:19. We live in a world at war, it’s that simple.
You can be assured, anywhere God has said He will covenant with people, the enemy of man will try to tear down, destroy and re-define. YOUR role and MY role is the same as Adam and Eve’s. In our business, social and personal lives, our responsibility is to live and represent who and what we believe. What we do here and now reverberates throughout history.
Life is a journey where change seems to be the prevailing wind, but marriage never changes. There is a battle to destroy what God created by re-defining the sexes and tearing down marriage. This battle has never changed. In fact, nothing has changed since creation and there is nothing new going on today that hasn’t been in motion since the beginning of time. ‘What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.’ Ecclesiastes 1:9.
Stand firm in what you believe and know to be true. We all know life begins and life ends. Our time on Earth is short and fleeting, but very purposeful. Marriage is a gift from God and not a hopeful bet you make or odds you play for convenience. When you find the right person make a covenant with them and the God who created marriage.
Marriage has been under attack since the beginning of time itself because it is a fundamental covenant between God and mankind. Know the truth and don’t buy the lies being told. Marriage is a winner.