Fifth proposition:
God is busy at a wedding and active throughout the marriage!
People will tell me, “We’ve decided to tie the knot!” No, you haven’t! You’ve decided to yield to God joining two people together, and there’s all the difference in the world between two people deciding to tie the knot, and two people yielding to allow God to make two people one!
Wedding arithmetic is very odd: one plus one, equals ONE. Take hydrogen and oxygen, two colorless, odorless gases, mix them, put an electrical charge through them, you’ll make a liquid – cold water! If you understand the principle of electrolysis, and don’t blow the roof off your house, you can actually get the water broken down into two colorless, odorless gasses.
You know what marriage is: Jill Ryder and Stuart Briscoe, two young single people being joined together by God 46 years ago, and spending 46 years discovering a deeper and a richer relationship of mutual comfort, of mutual support, of mutual encouragement, of mutual understanding! And I want to tell you something, you young people – my heart bleeds for people who bail out too soon! “Because you don’t know the blessings of mature love, and that’s what God intended because marriage is a God idea!”
“Lord, bless these married people here, elevate their understanding of marriage. Bless those who are struggling in their marriages. Give them your Spirit that they might be what they have been called to be. Bring blessing to those who have failed in marriage. Bring them, where necessary, to deep repentance. Bring them, where necessary, to healing and to strength again. Bless those who are contemplating marriage. Don’t let them become another statistic. Speak, Lord, to those people who are so eager to tear down the fence without having understood why it was erected in the first place. We believe with all our hearts that society can be strong and healthy only where the marriage bond is held in honor. Bless our land, we pray! And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all! Amen!” ❖