Glorifying God With Our Marriage
When I first met my husband, I didn’t make a very good impression. You see, I was getting over a relationship that left me wounded. I thought he was trying to make a move on me and I wasn’t having that.
To my surprise, he wasn’t. He was just saying hello to me, as he was to everyone else. He was just being his joyful self in Christ. As time passed we crossed paths a few times, and eventually we actually got to know each other better and became really good friends.
Although just a friend, the Lord used at that time to help me grow in my spiritual walk. As we got to know each other, the Lord started to work in both our hearts. About two and a half years after our initial encounter, with much prayer, we felt it was right to enter into a courtship.
During our courtship, we were faced with opposition from some of my family. They didn’t feel that he was right for me because he was older, divorced and had two children from his previous marriage.
My family felt I was making a mistake and were not pleased with my decision. They didn’t think I wasn’t thinking clearly and taking certain things in consideration. They didn’t make it easy for us.
We went through some difficult times, which pushed me to draw closer to God.
Alas, we decided to end the relationship for a few months in order to continue seeking guidance from the Lord, as well as others.
Though being certain of what God had said to us, both of legal age, we wanted it all to glorify Him and submitted to many things even some that were really not rooted in Christ. A few months later, we resumed our courtship.
It didn’t take long before the arguments started to flare up again between me and certain members of my family.
This led to more difficult times and even caused strife between us and eventually we stopped the courtship altogether, not believing anything would come of it all.
After ending the courtship I focused on my relationship with God and sought His direction for my life. I spent many a days in deep prayer. My relationship with my family members improved and things were getting back to normal.
Little did we know what the Lord had in store for us and how it was going to bring Him glory.
The Proposal
A year later, the Lord brought us together once again in a miraculous way (this is an entire story in itself, maybe even a book). We were sure it was God so we started to communicate again. A few months later my husband asked me to marry him, as he says at the urging of the Spirit of God. It was a beautiful proposal on the beach!
I was so ecstatic, but knew that we would be facing some hard times once again in regards to my family. This time we would stand firm in our decision come what may. We continued to trust God in everything. It wasn’t easy and a lot of tears flowed but we made it through and saw God’s hand at work after months of difficulties.
It all finally came together when I finally stopped the need to defend our stance and truly surrendered all to the Lord. As soon as I did that, within several hours, God changed the hearts of those that were against our marriage. At that moment, Luke 18:27 which states “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” became very real to me.
I praised the Lord that morning when I saw the drastic change of hearts. I knew only God could have done that. (Just to be clear, we did not need for everybody to agree with us and did not need anyone’s approval. We simply desired that His love and grace would be seen through it all and that it would be totally glorifying to Him and we committed to that.) That is what He impressed upon us and after surrendering totally, He made it to be so. In surrendering, we had to be WILLING to lose – to give up – the very thing the very one we were sure God had approved.
Preparing for our wedding
What a joyous time it was for both of us as we continued to see God at work throughout our wedding preparations.
As we prepared for our wedding day, we wanted to make sure that every detail pointed back to God. After all it wasn’t about us; it was, still is and will forever be ALL about Him!
What?!? Yes, our wedding day, our marriage, everything was about bringing glory to our Heavenly Father.
Our processional song is the theme of our marriage
As our processional song, I chose “Jesus, Lover of my Soul (It’s all about you)” by Passion. It’s not the traditional wedding song but it was the song the Lord laid on my heart.
This is one of my favorite songs. I want to share the verse of this song with you because these words describes how we can glorify God with not only our marriage but in everything.
“It’s all about You, Jesus
And all this is for You
For Your glory and your fame
It’s not about me
As if You should do things my way
You alone are God
And I surrender to Your ways”
We chose this song because everything we desire to do is to bring glory to the Lord. Our marriage is a testament of God’s love.
Two things I do to help me Glorify God in my marriage.
In order to glorify God in our marriage, I do two things. These two things are very simple, yet it can be hard to do sometimes because of the emotions that we may be feeling at the moment.
It is important to ask the Lord to help you with your emotions so you can pray with clarity. These two steps have helped me in our journey of glorifying God with our marriage.
It is important to ask the Lord to help you with your emotions so you can pray with clarity. Share on XPray without ceasing
Prayer is so important and it’s something that we need to be doing daily. Praying for our marriages, our children and ourselves. It’s the most powerful weapon the Lord has given us to battle against the enemies attacks.
Whenever I have a disagreement with my husband, I go straight to the Lord in prayer and cry out to Him. I don’t call a friend or my mother or anyone else. I first go to the Lord.
I pray over the situation, myself and my husband. I ask the Lord to show me my wrong, to speak to my heart and I repent for my own behavior. Then I pray for my husband that the Lord would speak to my husband’s heart and reveal His truth to him. When I do this the Lord always speaks to both our hearts. We ask each other for forgiveness and discuss the issue at hand (without all the excitement), which later leads us to resolve the problem.
I ask myself a question
I don’t only ask myself this question when things are hard but also when things are good or when we need to make a decision. The question I ask myself is “How can we glorify God in this situation?”
When things are going well, ask yourself, “How can we glorify God in this good time?”
When things are difficult, ask yourself, “How can we glorify God in this difficult time?”
When you are auguring with your spouse, ask yourself, “How can we settle this disagreement in a way the brings glory to God?”
When you ask yourself these questions the focus shifts from us to God and helps us see things much clearer then how we were seeing it before. It takes our focus from ourselves and puts it back to where its suppose to be, Christ.
Glorify God in Our Marriage
Glorifying God in our marriage isn’t always easy. In fact, it can be hard. Many times we let our flesh, our thoughts, our attitude, our insecurities, our hurts get in our way of what God is doing in our marriage, in our husbands and in ourselves. God can’t work and be glorified if we don’t get out of His way. If we don’t surrender.
Just as we believed and loved God before we were married, it continues everyday through every area and avenue of our married life. Our marriage is suppose to reflect the love that God has for His bride. The love that God has towards us is so merciful and grace-filled and is how we are suppose to love our spouses.
God knows our faults, the good, the bad and the ugly and still has unfailing love towards us and so we need to be like that in our own marriage. We will all have different struggles in our marriages – some situations maybe harder than others. But be encouraged that God is able to heal, restore and resurrect that which seems dry or dead in our marriages.
We will all have different struggles in our marriages - some situations maybe harder than others. But be encouraged that God is able to heal, restore and resurrect that which seems dry or dead in our marriages. Share on XWe are called to bring glory to God in everything we do and our marriage is included in that. We can’t do it on our own strength; we need God’s help. I have learned many lessons the hard way because I chose to do things my way.
When I have taken that route, it has caused us grief. I have learned and still am learning to see my husband not as my enemy when we have disagreements but as my partner, my love and my best friend. Like he has mentioned to me many times over and over before, “I’m not your enemy! I’m here for you and with you.” The same applies to our husbands, they need to feel respected and that we are there for them and with them.
We need to remember that God comes first, marriage is second and our individual desires comes after.
I Corinthians 12:12-27 talks about one body with many parts. Even though its not specifically addressing marriage, the principle is still applicable. Any part of the body that is wounded affects the whole entire body. In the same way, we are two separate parts in one marriage and so anything that affects one affects the other.
Mark 10:9 tells us “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” (KJV) Where it says “let no man put asunder”, that includes both of us. You are one with your spouse. If you are against your spouse in reality, you’re against yourself.
By surrendering our marriages, ourselves and letting the Lord work in us individually and as a couple we will be able to testify God’s goodness and power through our marriage.
How do you glorify God in your marriage? You honor the covenant made between God, yourself and your spouse.
This is more than a stated promise and is definitely not simply a feeling. This is a spiritual union and every effort is to be made to keep it that way.
- Trusting God with Your Marriage in Times of Crisis - February 13, 2019
- Glorifying God With Our Marriage - February 26, 2018
Wow, what an inspiring story of a marriage truly set apart. Thank you for sharing!
I have enjoyed this whole series! Thanks for arranging all these wonderful writers and encouraging all of us in our marriages!