God says in His Word “where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18)
The same can be said for marriages. If you do not have a vision, a plan and a goal for your marriage, your marriage will perish.
My husband married a broken and damaged woman. I had no sense of self-worth, I struggled with feelings of inadequacy and doubts and had built so many barriers around myself for fear of being hurt I am utterly amazed that he even took the time to get to know me, never mind marry me!
We have been married for 23 years now and a few years ago I asked him what he had seen in me that made him want to marry me. His answer shocked me. He said he had seen a wholeness in me. I was a broken person and yet God gave him this image, this vision of wholeness and through the years, because of his love and the fact that he has always treated me as a whole person, I have been able to grow into wholeness. Mind you I am still a work in progress!
It is therefore important to have a vision for your marriage from the onset so that when you go through the troubled and challenging times, and believe me you will have those times, you can hold onto that vision of ‘wholeness’, believe that eventually you will attain that vision and then work towards receiving it.
God’s vision for marriage is for the marriage to be a blessed one.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them… (Genesis 1:27,28)
His vision is for a husband and a wife to become one flesh. To live so closely in harmony with each other that there can be no division between them.
No division from family:
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)
No division from the temptations found in the world:
Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure… (Hebrews 13:4)
No divisions because of arguments about money:
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have… (Hebrews 13:5)
His vision is for marriage to be rooted in righteousness, justice, steadfast love, mercy, and faithfulness and for Him to be the bedrock of the marriage:
I will betroth you to me for ever, I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord. (Hosea 2:19,20)
God’s vision for marriage is for the husband and wife to “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:2,3)
His vision for marriage is for it to be such a strong union that nothing can ever overpower it or damage it:
Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:12)
The chord of marriage is made up of three strands – the husband, the wife and God.
If God is in your marriage it cannot be broken.Tweet this!
God’s vision and plan for our marriages is to give us hope and a future:
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:19
God’s vision for your marriage is for you to pray together:
I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. (Matthew 18:19-20)
God wants you to bring every marriage issue and challenge to Him in prayer. He wants you to pray together about these things.
During the first few years of our marriage when we were really struggling and sometimes even contemplating divorce, the only vision we would have was one of just getting through the year still married! And that is okay as long as you are actively seeking God’s will and holding onto the vision that you will get through the year with your marriage intact and you will trust God to perform a miracle in your marriage and to make it a happy one, there will come a day when you will be able to say ‘Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness in our marriage.”
