Marriage Is A Blessing

• God called everything He made very good, and marriage was in that (Genesis 1:31).

• Marriage was designed to be only a blessing. Not mostly, not sometimes. Only.

• God gave a new husband a full year home just to cheer up his wife (Deuteronomy 24:5). Rejoicing was built in from year one.

• Rejoice with the wife of your youth, and keep rejoicing for a lifetime (Proverbs 5:18).

• Our first most important relationship is with God, our heavenly Father.

• Our second most important relationship is with our spouse.

• Take God out of the center, and two people are left trying to fill each other up from empty.

• A godly marriage is built on doing God's Word, not just believing it.

• If your marriage isn't working, the answer isn't to give up the design. It's to change what you're doing.

• No marriage is perfect. It can still be amazing.

It is God's desire that everything about marriage is to be only a blessing (Genesis 1:31). 

He designed marriage to greatly benefit both the husband and the wife. 

When we follow the standard that God gave us, marriage is the greatest blessing.

Genesis 1:31 says that God looked at everything He had made and called it very good. Marriage was in that. God intended everything about marriage to be only a blessing. Not mostly a blessing. Not a blessing if you're lucky or if you married the right one or if you never fight. Only a blessing. That's the design. And it still works that way when we follow the pattern He set, not the pattern the world gives us.

In Deuteronomy 24:5, God gave a new husband a full year at home, free from other obligations, for one purpose. To cheer up his wife. Cheer up means to cause to rejoice, to make glad. God built rejoicing into year one on purpose. That first year sets the pattern for the whole marriage. 

Proverbs 5:18 says the same thing. Rejoice with the wife of your youth. Not just survive her. Rejoice with her, and keep rejoicing, for a lifetime. That's God's design too.

Marriage was never meant to be the first relationship. It was meant to be the second one.

The greatest realities of life bring the greatest joy. But the key to that joy isn't the marriage itself. It's maintaining our relationship (fellowship) with God first, and then with your spouse. In that order. 

A husband and wife who both walk with God get closer to each other as they get closer to Him. 

Take God out of the center, and two people are left trying to fill each other up from empty. 

A godly marriage is built on God's Word. Doing God’s Word is what works. 

If you're not getting the results you want in your marriage, the answer is not to give up on the design. It's to change what you're doing. Take responsibility for learning how to do the Word better in your own heart for God.

No marriage is perfect. But it can be amazing. It can be great. With Christ in us, we keep reaching for that, and we grow closer to God every time we stay faithful. Not because we finally arrived. Because we kept walking toward God, together.

That's where this starts. Not with rules. With a design, given as a gift, meant only to be a blessing.