Beverly and I are reading a book in preparation for our church's marriage retreat next month. It's entitled Sacred Marriage, by Gary Thomas. The subtitle is "What if God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy?" Wow. That's something to think about all by itself.
Let me share a couple of quotes: "What both of us crave more than anything else is to be intimately close to the God who made us. If that relationship is right, we won't make such severe demands on our marraige, asking each other, expecting each other, to compensate for spiritual emptiness."
He continues: "We need to remind ourselves of the ridiculousness of looking for something from other humans that only God can provide . . . We want to get the largest portion of our life's fulfillment from our relationship with our spouse. That's asking too much. Yes, without a doubt there should be moments of happiness, meaning, and a general sense of fulfillment. But my wife can't be God, and I was created with a spirit that craves God. Anything less than God, and I'll feel an ache."
Imagine if we would get this right! It would take a whole lot of pressure off of our relationship with our spouse, wouldn't it? And it's really not such a new concept. Jesus said long ago, "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things (marital relationships included) will be added to you."
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5 comments:
I believe if I can get my relationship with God right that my personal relationships will be right. Too often, I still find myself concerned with what I want, not what God wants. I hope I can continue to work on that and overcome it so that I am attuned to God's will for me and I will intensely follow His will.
A friend highly recommends that book. Let me know how it turns out. It sounds wonderful. Amy
Jeff has it aright. When I have difficulty in my marriage it is because I fail to seek God's face.
I, too, am loving Gary Thomas' book. Awesome stuff - God using our marriages to make us more like Jesus!
Sounds like a book I would like to read. It's funny I was just thinking about this earlier this week. Chris and I have both been doing a lot of reading in the word together. And even though we aren't reading the same things, we still stop each other and talk about it. I was thinking this week how I have noticed since we started doing that, our relationship has improved. Not that it was bad before, I have always thought we have a great marriage. But you definitely notice a difference we you are sharing Christ with each other daily. The power of God is Awesome!
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