God’s Kind of Marriage

God’s kind of marriage is like two masterfully trained and highly skilled tennis players who are experts at playing doubles together. Whenever a ball comes at them, they know instinctively how to work as a team to be most effective. At times they get tired, yet they don’t give up. They win the large majority of their matches because of their diligent practice together and acquired skill, and when they do, the victory is exhilarating.

Likewise, because of living in an imperfect world, there are challenges we encounter. When we realize we are on the same team and face obstacles together, we become much more effective, plus the process is abundantly more rewarding.

To be the best team possible, we could think of our daily prayer time together as our marriage unity practice. Just as a sports team practices together daily before they ever come to game day, we practice unity through prayer before trials and obstacles come in order to be consistently victorious. This prayer time gets us on the same page as a couple. It builds a unified vision and increases respect between us. It fuels us to experience increased marriage stability, joy, and emotional peace.

We like to compare daily prayer to a welding torch. When a truly good weld is made with two pieces of metal by an experienced welder, it is stronger where the two pieces come together than at any other place on the metal.

This is what prayer does to a marriage. It welds it together so perfectly that when challenges occur, rather than having anger and division, the marriage will not bend to the pressures. Both husband and wife continue to walk in love towards each other, refusing to allow strife in their relationship, and it causes the enemy not to get access. It’s really putting James 4:7 into practice daily. “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

  

Matthew 18:19-20 says, “That if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.” If you study the word used for “agree” in the original Scripture, it means to be of one heart on something. In other words, not only your words have to be in agreement, but your hearts also have to be in agreement.
 
A married couple in unity is definitely two in agreement. There is no stronger union between humans than the marriage covenant made before God, because it represents our relationship with God. Therefore, the enemy tries to make married couples ignorant of their power together.
 

We experienced a large challenge in our early years of marriage. There were some inappropriate situations going on where I worked. Amy and I had discussed that I should start looking for a new job. One day after another situation occurred, I resigned and had to go home to tell Amy I had left my job and we were going to have to move quickly because my work was connected to our housing.

As I walked in the door, I wasn’t sure how to give Amy the news, so I just blurted out, “I left my job and we have to find a new place to live within ten days!” To my surprise, Amy got a huge smile on her face and said, “Praise the Lord! It’s about time! Let’s praise God right now for the great things He’s about to do for us!”

In challenging times, it’s essential to remember nothing catches God by surprise! We praised God with all of our hearts, thanking him for the new job I would soon have and the better home we knew by faith He had already prepared for us. Within one week we met an amazing couple who had a beautiful home for rent. It was significantly better than we had before. As crazy as it sounds, we told them we didn’t have money for a deposit and I didn’t have a job yet, but would soon. They actually said yes, lowered the rent they were asking by one-third each month in exchange for us shoveling their driveway in the winter, and even waved the deposit because they said they just liked us! God did miracle after miracle!

Within three weeks I had a new job which paid twice as much! The job also came with great insurance benefits which we didn’t have before! In addition to all this, the new company I worked for even reimbursed my college tuition. That’s the favor of God!

As we walked through this trying situation, we never became angry at each other nor allowed bitterness to enter. We trusted God would continue to keep us in his will. Sure, we were tempted at times to worry and be upset. We could have cried and said “Why did this happen God? It isn’t fair!”

It didn’t look good and it definitely didn’t feel good, but prayer time together had built our unity in advance just like the sports team analogy we shared. Prayer had prepared us for a tough spot in the game and when it came, we passed the test and received the victory God had prepared for us!

As we practice unity by praying together when things are up, it empowers and equips us to be good at unity when things are down. When life gets tough and other couples may have breakdowns, you and your spouse will be prepared to win!

With love, 

Pastors Shaun & Amy 


^