16 min
How to Have a Lasting Christ-Centered Marriage Scott LaPierre Ministries
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- Christianity
Do you want to know how to have a lasting Christ-centered marriage? Ephesians 5:18 tells us to "be filled with the Holy Spirit." Read or listen to this material from Your Marriage God’s Way to learn how the Holy Spirit will help you have a lasting Christ-centered marriage.
Table of Contents* Your Marriage Reflects Your Relationship with Christ* Jesus Deserves Your Obedience* Trust the Holy Spirit to Help You Have a Christ-Centered Marriage* A Holy-Spirit Filled Marriage* We Cannot Just Sit Back* What Might It Look Like for the Holy Spirit to Help Us?* The Encouraging Balance When Striving to Have a Lasting Christ-Centered Marriage
A few years ago, Katie and I faced the biggest crisis of our marriage. I started pastoring Woodland Christian Church when it was small, but within three years, the congregation tripled. Before I became a pastor, I was unaware of how much work is involved in shepherding a church of even a few hundred people. I had been an Army officer, a supervisor at a distribution center for a major retail chain, and an elementary school teacher. But none of those occupations approached the amount of mental and emotional energy and sheer hard work pastoring entails!
Almost all my waking hours were spent studying, teaching, counseling, making phone calls, sending emails, attending meetings, addressing administrative responsibilities, and tending to benevolence issues. When I was at home, where I should have been an engaged father and husband, I did not have much left for my family mentally, emotionally, or physically.
Although I was failing as a husband and father, I was able to convince myself I was still pleasing the Lord. I compartmentalized my life by saying, “I am a Christian first. I am a spouse second. I am a parent third. I am an employee fourth.” Instead, I should have said, “I am a Christian spouse. I am a Christian parent. I am a Christian employee.” The danger of seeing ourselves as Christian servants first and spouses second is that we can believe the lie I bought into: “If I can be a good pastor, I can please God even though I am not the best husband.”
The truth is that I was a poor husband, and I should have recognized that meant I was not pleasing the Lord.
Your Marriage Reflects Your Relationship with Christ
The reason we cannot please the Lord while failing as a husband or wife is that our Christianity is directly related to the way we treat our spouses. Our marriages are outpourings of our relationships with Christ:
* In Matthew 7:16, Jesus asked, “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?”
* In James 3:11-12, the apostle James asked, “Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs?”
The point of these verses is that we reveal our Christianity by the way we live. Jesus clarified: “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). And right living—or right fruit—can only be produced through a strong relationship with Christ.
Because our relationships with our spouses are our most important earthly relationships,
Do you want to know how to have a lasting Christ-centered marriage? Ephesians 5:18 tells us to "be filled with the Holy Spirit." Read or listen to this material from Your Marriage God’s Way to learn how the Holy Spirit will help you have a lasting Christ-centered marriage.
Table of Contents* Your Marriage Reflects Your Relationship with Christ* Jesus Deserves Your Obedience* Trust the Holy Spirit to Help You Have a Christ-Centered Marriage* A Holy-Spirit Filled Marriage* We Cannot Just Sit Back* What Might It Look Like for the Holy Spirit to Help Us?* The Encouraging Balance When Striving to Have a Lasting Christ-Centered Marriage
A few years ago, Katie and I faced the biggest crisis of our marriage. I started pastoring Woodland Christian Church when it was small, but within three years, the congregation tripled. Before I became a pastor, I was unaware of how much work is involved in shepherding a church of even a few hundred people. I had been an Army officer, a supervisor at a distribution center for a major retail chain, and an elementary school teacher. But none of those occupations approached the amount of mental and emotional energy and sheer hard work pastoring entails!
Almost all my waking hours were spent studying, teaching, counseling, making phone calls, sending emails, attending meetings, addressing administrative responsibilities, and tending to benevolence issues. When I was at home, where I should have been an engaged father and husband, I did not have much left for my family mentally, emotionally, or physically.
Although I was failing as a husband and father, I was able to convince myself I was still pleasing the Lord. I compartmentalized my life by saying, “I am a Christian first. I am a spouse second. I am a parent third. I am an employee fourth.” Instead, I should have said, “I am a Christian spouse. I am a Christian parent. I am a Christian employee.” The danger of seeing ourselves as Christian servants first and spouses second is that we can believe the lie I bought into: “If I can be a good pastor, I can please God even though I am not the best husband.”
The truth is that I was a poor husband, and I should have recognized that meant I was not pleasing the Lord.
Your Marriage Reflects Your Relationship with Christ
The reason we cannot please the Lord while failing as a husband or wife is that our Christianity is directly related to the way we treat our spouses. Our marriages are outpourings of our relationships with Christ:
* In Matthew 7:16, Jesus asked, “Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?”
* In James 3:11-12, the apostle James asked, “Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs?”
The point of these verses is that we reveal our Christianity by the way we live. Jesus clarified: “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). And right living—or right fruit—can only be produced through a strong relationship with Christ.
Because our relationships with our spouses are our most important earthly relationships,
16 min