No Heart Left Behind is committed to helping couples keep Christ at the center of their marriages, allowing the Word of God and the love of Christ to be the glue that holds the husband and wife together. We help couples remember that the marriage vows say for "worse and poorer" as well as "for richer and better". What I am seeing today is that so many couples have forgotten their vows, and when the "worse and poorer" part comes along, usually one or both of the parties involved want to leave and look for someone new to have the "rich and better" part. Satan is attacking our nation at the root of the family. May we be reminded today of what God desires for us when we enter into the sanctity of marriage.
When we enter into marriage, we become models of God's love to each other for the world to see and want to know more about.
The bridegroom (displayed by the married man) is to respond to his bride just as Christ does to His church. He is to love her sacrificially in both his words and actions. Christ is then given high visibility and honor and has the opportunity to display His loving nature through this man by how he treats his wife so that others will want to know God more personally. (The husband is to be faithful to his wife even if his bride is not. This shows forth the character of Christ in giving unconditional love to his wife. It's an awesome responsibility!) The Holy Spirit is always available to teach the man how to do this in his everyday life.
The bride (displayed by the married woman), is to show loving, respectful ways in how she interacts with her husband (the bridegroom), to such an extent that others who don't know Christ are drawn to the type of love that pours forth from her. Her faithful, loving and respectful ways are to stay true despite the husband's actions. This is the nature and character of God. It is also part of being in a covenant relationship with God and the marriage partner. The bride is faithful, no matter what-just as God is faithful! The Holy Spirit is always available to teach the woman how to do this in her everyday life.
It must break the heart of God when He sees the awful way we treat each other and how we distort the picture of marriage that He has displayed for all to read throughout the Bible. Think about it: when we as His living examples of convenantal love divorce each other, what does this say to the world of God's promises to the Church of His love, devotion and faithfulness to them? And what example and message are we giving out to others of the "transforming power" that God can perform in our lives and marriages, when we ourselves are not even utilizing that power? It's a sad testimony today that marriages are so weak and unhealthy, not to mention the number of divorces among professing Christians?
We have all known people who have expressed a disinterest in knowing Christ because of the nasty ways that Christians treat each other and those around them by living unfaithful, dishonest and dishonoring lives. If we as people who claim to know Jesus Christ in a personal way can't act extraordinarily loving and gracious towards each other, what makes those who don't know Christ think He will change their lives for the better in any way? What about us and the way we live our lives will attract them to know Christ in a personal way?
We need to see marriage as a "one flesh" lifestyle. We are to be helpers to each other spiritually, materially and physically in every way that the Bible requires us to be. We pray you will continue to grow in that mind-set as partners instead of turning on each other when you have disagreements with each other about the differences in ways of doing things. It is natural to have disagreements, but disagreements can be roads to learn how to find ways to come to agreement and become partners in every aspect of life-getting to know God's ways of doing things instead of our self-satisfying ways. It is our prayer for you that if you are struggling in your marriage, you will take a look within your own heart and ask God help you become Christ-centered with your spouse instead of self-centered.
