Ephesians 5:31-32, “31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.”
God said it was not good for man to be alone so He gave Eve to Adam and told them to be fruitful and multiply, Genesis 1:28. The first organization God started was a family. Families are designed to be a place where relational and emotional needs can be met everyday. When a family is built on the Word of God it is the single greatest force on the earth. But when it is built on the flesh and is given over to sin, the family can bring much hurt to a person.
You must decide that you and your house are going to serve the Lord together. You must choose that each member in the family is going to be the person God commanded them to be and that there will be unity in the home. When the family operates in divine unity and structure God will pour out His blessings upon the house and all who live in it.
One of the newest and most destructive trends eroding the foundations of marriage and the family in the U.S. is couples living together and not being married. Between 2006 and 2010, nearly half of heterosexual women (48 percent) ages 15 to 44 said they were not married to their spouse or partner when they first lived with them; that is up from 43 percent in 2002, and 34 percent in 1995.
Nearly 75 percent of all women ages 30 or younger said they lived with a partner outside of marriage at some point in their lives. And sadly, the length of time people now live together before marriage is increasing from 13 months in 1995 to 22 months in 2010.
As a result of living together before marriage; (a) Only 31% of women today are married as compared to 92% in 1920, which is basically a 60% drop in marriage over the last 100 years; (b) The average age for a woman to get married is at a record high of 27 years old; and lastly, (c) If the cohabitating couple ever does get married (only around 1 out of 5 actually do), they have an 80% higher rate of divorce than those who didn’t live together before marriage!
Therefore, make a stand for godly marriage and families in the following five ways: (1) Read God’s Word together; (2) Worship and sing songs to God; (3) Pray and lift up each other’s needs to God; (4) Talk to each other about things that really matter in life. Ask each member what his or her specific needs are and help them through the hard times; and lastly, (5) Plan special days and events just to be alone as a family and try to make quality time with each member every day.
God gave the human race marriage and family so that we could feel love from each other and not be alone in this world. Decide right now to personally stand for your family!
Reflection
In what ways can you stand for marriage and family in your life?
Action
- Explain from the Bible why you should stand for godly marriages and families.
- Pray that God will use you to reach out to others who don’t have a healthy marriage or family.
- For more information regarding standing for marriage and family read the following books, “Five Love Languages,” by Gary Chapman and “God, Marriage, and Family,” by Andreas Kostenberger.
