Your Marriage Masterpiece by Al Janssen
Author:Al Janssen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Marriage;REL012050
ISBN: 9781441230478
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2016-08-16T00:00:00+00:00
How to Have a Good Fight
It occurs to me as I review passage after passage of Godâs challenges to His beloved that maybe His anger shows us when and how to fight within a marriage. First, Godâs complaints are based on the covenant. Itâs interesting that He held the people of Israel to a much higher standard than other nations. He had given Himself to them as their God, and they had agreed to be faithful to Him alone. Heaven forbid that God should ever go back on His word, but if He had, the people could have rightly called Him to account.
In fact, there is one situation where that happened. God was angry with His people after they built a golden calf to worship while God was giving Moses the law on Mount Sinai. God told Moses to get out of His way so He could destroy them. âThen,â He said, âI will make you into a great nation.â7 Youâd think this was a golden opportunity for Moses. But Moses didnât see it that way. He appealed to God: âRemember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: âI will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.ââ8
Moses had every right to challenge God based on the covenant. Because of that appeal, God relented and did not follow through on His threat. God, likewise, had every right to challenge Israelâs unfaithfulness, and He did so based on the fact that they were married.
A friend of mine, Pete*, struggled with an addiction to pornography. When his wife discovered the problem, she confronted him. At first he dismissed her accusations. âThis is no big deal,â he said. âWhy are you upset?â
âBecause weâre married,â she calmly explained through her tears. âI love you. Iâm here for you. You donât need these other women.â
âBut theyâre just pictures!â he protested. âThey mean nothing.â
âThen give them up,â his wife pleaded.
But my friend didnât. Pete simply did a better job of hiding the evidence. Once I became aware of his struggle, I would occasionally ask him how he was doing, and every time he would say he had the problem under control. But gradually I saw him less and less frequently. Peteâs wife was right to be concerned, for over time her husbandâs problems increased. He started calling 900 numbers and visiting strip clubs. When she discovered the evidence on credit card bills, they had a far greater confrontation. Despite her evidence, Pete refused to admit he had a problem and get help. Weâll come back to Pete in a minute.
My second observation is Godâs astonishing patience. I find this hard to understand, for in our culture we have a quick-fix mentality. We donât allow much time for a person to change. But God spent hundreds of years fighting for this marriage. He continually reached out to His beloved. âCome back to me!â Heâd plead. Sometimes she did. Occasionally hard times were requiredâfamine or conquest by enemiesâto bring her to her senses.
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