A Marriage With No Regrets
by John Barnett

When your life is done, and you look back those last few weeks or months that you have before cancer, or heart or respiratory problems overtake you - will you regret the days of your marriage and family? Will you be saddened when you remember those days? Will you be saddened when you see what your children are doing? Or will those have been the greatest years of your life? I think the choice is yours. Where are you headed in your marriage and as a family this morning? You will never get to anywhere you are not headed right now!

What is a Biblical Marriage and Partner Really Like?

There are few words that can describe the sheer delights of a marriage as God designed it to be. Marriage is to be such wonderful attraction that seven years of hard labor waiting for this is like a moment (Jacob in Genesis 29:20). Marriage is to be like a fruitful vine that delightfully grow around our lives (Psalm 128:3). Marriage is to be like joyful rivers of intoxicating blessings (Proverbs 5:18-19). Marriage is to be goodness and favor from the Lord (Proverbs 18:22), and marriage is to be to a companion of our youth (Malachi 2:14-15) to whom we make a life long covenant to.

All of us who are blessed in our marriages and families can testify what God's Word describes is exactly what we who have followed the Lord have experienced. A Biblical marriage and family is just a small snapshot of the delights of Heaven. A Biblical marriage and family is just a living portrait of the perfect love of Jesus. A Biblical marriage and family is just a traveling demonstration of the way the Lord works on earth.

So, how do we pray for our children if we are parents? And how do we direct our lives if we are young people? And how do we live together if we are married today? Or what do we look for if we are single and waiting today? Here we go, into God's Word to find all the answers from the Author and establisher of Marriage Himself. Let's turn back to the first book of the Bible, Genesis.

Pray that you, your children or your loved ones be — if you are married, become — if you are at home or single and waiting, wait and find — if you know God is leading you to get married...

A person who believes that God designed marriage and that wants to follow His rules for a wonderful marriage. Genesis 2:18 - "And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.' "

A person who will correspond to you. Genesis 2:20 - "So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him."

A person who will be glued to you. Genesis 2:24 - "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. By the way a big part of the glue is the sexual intimacy marriage provides. Have you ever licked and envelope or pulled the sealer tape, sealed it and then remembered something else and unsealed it? It doesn't work the second or third time does it? Don't ruin the glue of your marriage by playing with it or you will find that you are not secure in your marriage, glued together as one. Your husband or wife should be the only person you have ever experienced physical intimacy with. The first one you have loved, touched, held, and seen in any intimate way. Anything less than that will spell woes, pains, troubles, and grief for a lifetime."

A person who likes to be at home and not always running. Deuteronomy 6:7 - "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. By the way, all of those are hard to do if you don't eat together as a family, you don't spend time together, you don't put them to bed, and don't get them up.

A person who loves children and wants to teach them. Deuteronomy 6:7 - "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." Nehemiah 8:8 - "So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading."

A person that wants a pure home. Deuteronomy 6:9 - "You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates;" 6:14 - "You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you;" 7:25-26 - "You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. 26 Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing." Psalm 106:35 - "But they mingled with the Gentiles And learned their works."

A person who keeps their word... Psalm 15:4 - "In whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the Lord; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change."

Thursday, May 15, 2008