Devotion for Marriages – Growing in Oneness
The Lord is our Architect and Builder of our Marriage and Family
Ps.127:1 – “Unless the Lord builds the house, we labour in vain”
Unless the Lord builds, all our efforts of trying to serve and minister will be in vain. Likewise, this is true also in our marriage. Unless the Lord is in the centre of our marriage, all our efforts will be in vain.
Theoretically, a husband and wife will grow closer together when they both grow closer to the Lord. But unfortunately, this is not always true in real life. Many couples grow vertically onto the Lord individually, but are still distant from each other. This is my experience after working with many missionary and pastors. As a couple, both are working fervently in the ministry together and growing in the Lord, however, emotionally, they can be drifting apart from each other.
How do we truly grow in Oneness as a couple as we grow in the Lord together?
We need to be “one” spiritually. Praying together helps a couple to become one spiritually. In 1 Thess. 5:23, Paul says we are made up of Spirit-Soul-Body. “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ”.
Our real person is our spirit man. We are spiritual beings having a human experience and not human beings having a spiritual experience.
When our spirits are close [Spirit]
Our souls will be close [Emotions]
We become physically close [Body]
When we are intimate spiritually, we will be intimate in the soul and body. The world’s wisdom tries to create physical intimacy from the outside in, but we build from the inside out.
Mk.10:6-8 – “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”
Oneness is an event and position, but it is also a process, just like sanctification. We are sanctified when we are saved but we are also continuously being sanctified through the renewing of our mind.
We all come from different backgrounds, have different habits, different worldviews, and different emotional scars. As we unite our spirits together in prayers, we grow from oneness to oneness!
Most importantly, it causes us to hear God together and move in the ministry as one united in spirit.
Points to Ponder:
Is God in the centre of you marriage?