Married couples, are you having a difficult time with Valentine ideas? Here are few suggestions that you can implement into your gift or card, Isaiah 55:8-11 and Ecclesiates 4:12. If you have found that “Love” in marriage can be stomped on, wrinkled up, chewed up and spit out, then these verses are for you and your Valentine!
Guarding, protecting and nurturing the love in marriage is very important but, difficult at times! Fighting our sin nature and the selfishness that come from it, is a daily task! On the days when our eyes are focused on ourselves, scripture likes these will pass you right by: I Cor.7:2-5, meeting each other’s needs; Eph. 5:22-23, God’s plans for marriage; Gen 2, God creating Eve for Adam and I Cor. 13, God’s design for love. That is when you apply Isaiah 55:8 &11:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
We can’t apply any of the principals of marriage when we have taken our eyes off of God and His sovereign Word! As verse 11 states, His Word does not come back empty and will accomplish It’s purpose when applied! And verses 8 and 9 reinforce the fact that our thoughts and ways are not God’s ways! When we take our eyes off of God and put them on ourselves, our own ways and thoughts, trouble will come! Satan will see this as welcome mat and come to steal, kill and destroy you. The design of a Godly marriage will make no sense coming from a self-seeking viewpoint. So when you find yourself in this place hold onto these scriptures and the truth they hold, especially to the One who put them out there for you! This will help your divert your focus and by placing your trust in God and anchoring your hope into His Word.
Striving to please God and obey Him first, before yourself or your spouse, will help you achieve the goal of God’s design in marriage and love! Through this heart of surrender, not greed, God can build a solid foundation and a long-standing structure, filled with joy and happiness! There will be seasons of pain, sorrow, disappointment and hurt. But, if God’s blueprints are followed, His engineering will withstand the storms of life!
In Ecclesiastes 4:12 it says, ” A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” So bind yourself to your mate with the strength of the Holy Spirit. Apply Him to your marriage with humility, surrender and faith! What a Valentine’s gift! God’s Word begins to make more sense as we apply it to our lives and see the fulfillment of His promises flow before us! And the awesome thing about this gift is ……….it will never wear out! Happy Valentine’s Day!
