Do you feel like your marriage is getting stale? If so, then there's good news for you: it doesn't have to. When God designed marriage, He didn't mean for it to be good the first three years and then unbearable for the rest of your life. He meant for it to be beautiful, enjoyable and God-honouring.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, there were 813,862 divorces recorded in America in 2014. There is a shocking growth of marriages running on steam all across the world, and it's not just happening in one area. Portugal, for instance, has one of the highest divorce and annulment rates with 68 percent of marriages being nullified in 2010.
What is it that makes a marriage last through the ups and downs? There is only one solution, and that's the grace and love of God. So many married couples are trying to find the quickest fix to their fleeting emotions and disappearing euphoria thinking that if they find the ten steps to a healed marriage or seven ways to date your wife all over again (although those are helpful, don't get me wrong), that we will be able to rekindle the flames of intimacy.
Truth be told however, there is no way we can save or sustain our marriages. That is why we need the grace and love of God to flow through us and overflow into our marriages. A husband who falls in love with Jesus on a daily basis as he reads his Bible and prays, will constantly find the means and energy to date and swoon his wife. A wife who is intimate with God and serves Him endlessly will never have to get tired of serving her husband in better and bigger ways.
However, marriage won't always be a bed of roses. There will be fights, arguments, harsh words and disappointments, but beyond all of that there will always be the grace of God and the enabling power that brings forth the fruits of the Spirit. Because of our sinful nature, marriage becomes hard work, but through the gift of life that comes from Jesus we can enjoy and sustain our marriages and make it last through the years.
Simply dating each other and trying to carry the weight of the relationship may work or may fail, but the love and grace of God will never fail. There is no option better than relying on the grace of God.
When was the last time you experienced the love and goodness of God? How can you let your intimacy with God trickle down to your marriage?
