Commit to your marriage ~ Mike MacIntosh

Then He arose from there and came to the region of Judea by the other side of the Jordan. And multitudes gathered to Him again, and as He was accustomed, He taught them again. The Pharisees came and asked Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" testing Him. And He answered and said to them, "What did Moses command you?" They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her." And Jesus answered and said to them, "Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation, God 'made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." Mark 10:1-9 God hates divorce. Why? Because He hates the pain that it brings into the heart of the wife and the husband. He hates the pain it brings into the spouses' parents. He hates the pain of the little boy or little girl crying, "Is daddy ever coming home again?" He hates the pain it brings to the teenage son when he starts smoking, or drinking, and getting rebellious. He hates divorce because He knows that it brings pain. He doesn't hate you. He hates the fact that divorce rips apart something that was once joined together. Satan knows that if he can get families to be torn apart, then the churches will be torn apart. The enemy knows that if he can keep hatred in the family, then there will be hatred in our nation and our world. But on the flipside, if the home can be turned around towards God, then our churches, nation, and our world could all be turned around. If the littlest guy on the pecking order of our society could turn his own home around, then we know that all the working class could be turned around. If the professors on the campuses would turn their homes around, then the classes they are teaching could be turned around, too. It starts with the heart of the home. What leaves your front door in the morning is what is going to affect our society. Marriage is under attack and is losing ground by the day. Many now walk into marriage asking, "How can he or she fulfill my needs?" With that kind of attitude and perspective, our marriages fail before they even start. We need to start fighting to restore love back into our relationships. Remember the marriage vows: "for better and for worse, richer and poorer, in sickness and in health." Nowhere does it say, "as long as we're both fulfilled." Self-fulfillment has become an underlying principle for the reasons people do many things in our society. So until we can crucify those thoughts, there cannot be revival in the body of Christ and in our nation. Seek the Lord and His will for your marriage. For some, this may be a difficult task, but you need to start reading the Scriptures with your spouse. You need to be in the Word and praying together every day. The only thing that will fix marriages is the Lord Himself. God doesn't want to see your family in pain and misery. Be committed to your marriage.