Why should you listen to these five biblical passages before reaching the altar?

Marriage is an idea of ​​God, rather, a great idea of ​​God! Only He could have happened to achieve that paradox; two different people, sinners, united in one flesh to reflect something as holy as Christ's relationship with his church!

There are not a few people who see marriage as a goal, they dream that when they achieve it, they will be happy and full. I do not want to damage the party, but, although it is true that marriage is an honorable, rewarding state, it is also true that after we get married, a new stage of intensive growth begins that is beautiful and challenging at the same time.

One of the areas in which God has allowed me to serve is in premarital counseling with my husband, I must admit that it is one of the things we most enjoy doing together.

As expected, the Word of God has been, together with prayer, a useful and accurate tool to help the couple to prepare for marriage. The Bible is the manual for life and that includes marriage.

Today I will share five biblical texts that I understand that future spouses should study before getting married, which have been a blessing for us and our couples of counseled:

Psalm 127: 1-2

If the Lord does not build the house,
in vain do those who build it work;
if the Lord does not keep the city,
in vain watches the guard.
It is in vain that you get up at dawn,
that you go to bed late,
that you eat the bread of laborious labor,
for He gives to his beloved even while he sleeps.

Any project that does not start with God has no guarantee of success. No matter how many precautions you take in your marriage plan, God must be the center of every detail, from the choice of your future spouse to the wedding date. God has an opinion about everything, in fact, it is the best opinion. Marriage does not work automatically, it requires effort and dedication. If you read the text carefully you will notice that it does not say that we should not strive, work, be intentional, but that, if God is not in control of the project, all our effort is in vain, empty, useless. It is unfruitful to work hard in a marriage without God and His purposes at the center of our hearts. It's like swimming and staying on the shore.
Any project that does not start with God has no guarantee of success. No matter how many precautions you take in your marriage plan, God must be the center of every detail, from the choice of your future spouse to the wedding date. God has an opinion about everything, in fact, it is the best opinion. Marriage does not work automatically, it requires effort and dedication. If you read the text carefully you will notice that it does not say that we should not strive, work, be intentional, but that, if God is not in control of the project, all our effort is in vain, empty, useless. It is unfruitful to work hard in a marriage without God and His purposes at the center of our hearts. It's like swimming and staying on the shore.

Colossians 3: 1-4

If you are, then, risen with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your sights on things above, not on things on earth. Because you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, is manifested, then you too will be manifested with Him in glory.

Marriage must be lived with sight in eternity. The union of man and woman in one flesh points to something more transcendent than the earthly. If you are going to marry to find in your husband the joy and fullness that only God can give you, you will suffer a lot. If you have risen with Christ, you belong to Him, your deepest longings come from above, He is the one who can satisfy you! And marriage then? It is the place for the spouses to enjoy and share what God grants them in the measure in which they know him more through coexistence. The point here is that the source from which joy, satisfaction, sense of purpose gushes out is God, not your husband. Husbands enjoy those blessings of God as they live their lives with an eye to the eternal.

Lucas 6:45

The good man, from the good treasure of his heart, brings out what is good; and the bad man, of the maltosorosaca what is bad; for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Managing conflicts is a vital issue in marriage and meditating on this biblical text helps us to have the right focus on this topic. Like James chapter 4, this text points to the origin of the conflict: your heart. It is so easy to see the problem in the other and justify our wrong actions and sins in the behavior of the other. This text reminds us that for something bad or good to come out of me, it must have been inside first. It makes me responsible for my behavior, the way I respond to others, regardless of the other's sin. This text invites us to be deeper in the way we evaluate interactions with others and helps us find the root of the problem. Blaming the other for everything that happens is a childish way of living life. To reach a mature marriage it is necessary for each member to grow in the ability to see himself as God sees him: a redeemed sinner in need of repentance and grace.

Colossians 3: 12-14

Then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with tender compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, enduring one another and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; as Christ forgave you, so also do you. And above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of unity.

Marriage should be a place where grace and forgiveness abound steadily. I do not know if you know it, but if you want to marry you will do it with a sinner, there is no other! He is going to sin against you and you against him, even if it is not intentionally. This text does not invite us to permissiveness or indulgence, but to cultivate an attitude of kind patience, of love; which turns out to be the same as what you will need and that God has already done with you. So it is not an effort that you have to make in your own strength, but rather an attitude in which God enables us to be instruments of Him, while we imitate Him.

Decide to be a patient and forgiving wife before you get married, that will allow God to work in your marriage more clearly.

Ephesians 5: 24-25

But, just as the church is subject to Christ, so should women be loyal to their husbands in everything. Beloved, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.

I could not miss this text! Marriage represents the union of Christ with the church, the paradox we spoke at the beginning of this article and these verses together with others in the Word define our responsibility in this sanctifying dynamic. Biblical submission is not a suggestion, it is a mandate that brings liberation and creates the conditions for God to intervene in the life of your husband. It does not look simple, it is not even an achievement of a day, it is a lifestyle that allows us to grow spiritually, to know God, and ourselves in a more authentic way. Not in vain did Martin Luther call marriage the school of character. If you are not ready to surrender your will to God, you will not enjoy being married. Remember: submission will set you free and your future husband's leadership is what we need for God's purpose to be fulfilled.

At the end of this article it is my prayer that you be persuaded to seek diligently the biblical advice for marriage before you marry. God left us His Word for us to know Him and we could apply His principles in our life. I encourage you to search the Scriptures and discover how marriage works in God's way.