FBC Daily Devotional – August 9, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:05

Well a good Monday morning to you. I hope your week gets off to a good start today Well, this is a really special day in my house 41 years ago today on a warm August Saturday afternoon one o 'clock in the afternoon my wife and I repeated our vows to one another and Tied the knot and it's been tied ever since so today is our 41st anniversary

00:33

So congratulations to my wonderful bride for enduring the marathon

00:40

It's really kind of an interesting Connection with that. We a few years ago. We started a little tradition of Doing a bike ride that would be equal to one mile for every year.

00:54

We were married I think the first time we did that it was 32 or 33 miles that we had to go

01:01

Well, we're up to 41 miles this year and you know at some point we're figuring we're gonna have to do maybe

01:09

Maybe do that over two or three days. I Don't know. It's not gonna happen two or three days this year.

01:14

We're gonna set aside a time and Try to try to gut out those 41 miles

01:21

Together for our anniversary. Well, anyway, so 41 years, so What's the secret right?

01:27

What's the secret? according to the US Census Bureau from the 2009 -10 census an article said that the median duration of an

01:41

American woman's first marriage is 20 .8 years

01:47

Well, that was 11 years ago Well, then I came across an article in Brides magazine of all things this magazine that ought to be encouraging brides

01:56

They're anticipating their marriage, but this magazine in February of this year

02:02

Had an article that said the typical US marriage that ends in divorce lasts just eight years and The percentage of those marriages that ends in divorce it varies widely from state to state

02:16

So for example, they said that in, Oklahoma Almost two -thirds 65 .7

02:22

% of marriages end in divorce now. I'm not sure about these statistics, you know,

02:27

I've heard, you know Pretty bad statistics like this before and they were a little skewed.

02:33

So I'm not gonna vouch for him I'm just telling you what the article said that in, Oklahoma 65 .7

02:40

marriages end in divorce and of those 65 .7 marriages the

02:45

Average life of the marriage would be eight years in Hawaii only 20 % of the marriages end in divorce

02:54

So it's really no wonder that when you know, we tell people, you know We've been married for 41 years that in general the response is like Wow Really?

03:07

Like how? Whoa You know like Wars like they just discovered a dinosaur or something, you know something of that nature

03:15

So so what's the secret? well a few ideas I'm not gonna share anything profound and I can't really elaborate on any of them because I Don't intend for these devotionals to last forever.

03:26

So just a few ideas number one really know The person you're gonna marry really know them

03:34

You know, my wife and I dated for four years before we got married and we got married this day and age

03:41

We got married young She was 20 I was 22 and we dated for four years before that So we really got to know each other pretty well before we tied the knot number two

03:55

Be on the same page about where you're headed I mean from before you get to the altar be on the same page.

04:03

So from the outset of our dating relationship My wife well

04:09

Chris knew before we got married. She knew that I was determined to go into the into the ministry that that was the direction of my life and so when we started dating she knew

04:21

I'm heading into the ministry the pastoral ministry and She was not only fine with that if that's what you want to do kind of an attitude

04:30

But she wanted to go there too. She wanted to join the journey if you will number three

04:37

Mary in the Lord Mary in the Lord what I mean by that is Be sure that you're both on the same page in your faith.

04:46

Your faith is the same Be sure that you're both believers in Christ your followers of Christ and not only that But committed to him

04:58

Desiring to be to be to be disciples growing disciples of the

05:04

Lord Jesus and be sure that It's God who has brought you together

05:10

I'm not talking about some mystical kind of experience You know where you put out a golden you put out a fleece and ask

05:15

God to Make the fleece dry kind of thing if this is the woman you're supposed to marry I'm not talking about that kind of thing, but it's just the inner conviction

05:23

That you come to realize because you've gotten to know each other over a period of time a long period of time

05:30

That you know, it's God who has brought us together if you come to that understanding in that conviction

05:37

That gives teeth to the statement that Jesus made when he said what

05:42

God is joined together Let not man tear asunder number four

05:48

Don't look back Don't look back after the knot is tied the vows have been made and The minister says you may now kiss your bride and you go on Don't look back.

06:02

Don't look back With second -guessing, you know like oh man, you know, did

06:08

I get married too young, you know, should I waited for somebody else? You know, maybe the perfect soulmate is out there in the universe somewhere.

06:15

No Don't look back. Don't do second -guessing Don't look back at lost loves, you know the

06:26

The Internet has created the phenomenon of people looking up You know lost loves from years and years and years ago and then reconnecting with them and Reigniting those those

06:42

Fanning into flames those relationships that had died. Don't don't go there. Don't look back and Then don't look around Don't look around don't look around as if there are other options out there for you at this stage of the game.

06:56

There aren't when you Said to that person Standing across from you holding them holding their hand in yours and you said

07:05

I am forsaking all others for you You meant it then Mean it now

07:11

Don't look around and then do this is number six Do look up look up and what

07:21

I mean by that is to pray Pray for one another pray for your spouse

07:26

Pray for their Physical material well -being, of course, but for their spiritual and emotional well -being

07:35

And pray for God to grow them in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, but look not just for your spouse

07:41

Pray for yourself pray for your role in this marriage relationship

07:47

That you be the husband or the wife that God would have you to be so do look up number seven

07:55

Do look back You say wait a minute. Didn't you just say don't look back?

08:00

Yeah, I did You do have to look back, but you don't look back. You don't look back and second -guess.

08:06

You don't look back at Lost loves, but you do look back at that day for us

08:14

August 9th 1980 one o 'clock in the afternoon what happened on that day?

08:20

What happened on that day? What did what did we do? What did

08:25

God do? God put something together God put something together

08:31

No something. It's a something that he said what I've put together. Don't you tear apart?

08:37

That's what God did. What did we do? What we did on that day was we entered into a lifelong

08:45

Covenant with one another this isn't was there wasn't a contract that as if one could one or the other could break it

08:52

This was a covenant and in that covenant. We are We are

08:58

Bonding together. We are joining together with one another in a in a lifelong commitment and it is a lifelong commitment we make that promise and Sickness and in health and poverty and in wealth so long as you both shall live

09:19

That's the commitment that we make in a Christian marriage and Then number eight and this all with this

09:27

I'll end And there's so many more things that could be said to be sure this isn't intended to be a marriage counseling session

09:33

But it just got me reflecting, you know, this is 41 years got me thinking about you know

09:38

When especially when I see so many marriages crumble and so forth, you know Why why haven't ours why hasn't ours other than the grace of God?

09:48

Well, the grace of God is a huge thing, of course, but here's number eight do look at yourself

09:54

Do look at yourself. Let me review these dues. Okay, don't look back.

09:59

Don't look around Do look up Do look back look back at what

10:05

God's done and what you did on that wedding day and then do look at yourself What I'm getting at here is

10:10

I'm going to encourage you to review Ephesians chapter 5 and do so often

10:20

Individually whether you're a wife or a husband and ask yourself the question How am

10:26

I doing with my responsibilities? It's easy It's easy to look at the spouse, isn't it?

10:34

and when you feel that you think that your spouse isn't holding up her end of the bargain and then she's

10:42

She's failing in her carrying out of her responsibilities Well ask yourself the question from Ephesians chapter 5.

10:51

How am I doing with my responsibilities? So if your husband if your husband how are you doing at loving your wife as Christ loved the church and Gave himself for it

11:06

Is your love for your wife marked by self -sacrifice? Death to self for the benefit and the welfare of your wife or Would you have to admit an awful lot of selfishness and determining to have your own way?

11:24

That's a That's a recipe for disaster Are you loving your wife as Christ loved the church verse 28 in chapter 5 says?

11:34

Husbands ought to love their own wives as they love their own bodies as they care for their own bodies

11:39

And we do we take care of our bodies. We nourish them. We we We we print them we make sure they're

11:48

I mean as much as we can You know healthy and well Do we nourish our spouse in the same way our wives and the first part of verse 33?

12:00

Says the same thing says nevertheless let each one of you speaking of husbands in particular

12:05

Love his wife as he loves himself So, how am I doing how you doing husbands and then wives can ask themselves a question too, how am

12:15

I doing in my role? What's the what's the responsibility of the wife from Ephesians chapter 5 verse 22 says to the wives?

12:24

Submit yourselves to your own husbands. Now be careful with that Especially if you're a husband listening

12:29

That does not mean that your wife has to grovel at your feet and that you are that you're entitled to be a slave driver

12:36

No, it's simply talking about the roles and responsibilities of leadership that That the husband is responsible to be the leader in the home

12:48

The one who's ultimately responsible for decision -making you counsel with one another you can you communicate with one another?

12:56

But somebody has to make the decision and what all is said and done wives Let that husband make that decision and if it ends up being a wrong one a bad one it's on him not you and if he ends up making a good one, it's on him and thank him for it and and so forth, but That's that's the wife's one of the wives

13:18

Responsibilities the other is seen in verse 33 the last part of the verse first part says husbands

13:23

Love your wife as your own self, but then the last part of the verse says let the wife See that she respect her husband and you know, it's interesting

13:34

That the two emphases that Paul makes here in Ephesians chapter 5 for husbands and wives

13:40

He emphasizes the very thing that the other partner needs Emphasized our wives need to know that they are secure in our love heart our husbands

13:53

We need to know that our wives respect us I mean, that's just if all else, you know, if I don't think my wife respects me.

14:02

I feel absolutely awful and men you do too and The wives if they are not secure in our love for them

14:11

Then their lives are awful So, how are you doing? Look at yourself?

14:16

How are you doing into fulfilling of your responsibility? Well, I know that there's so much more that could be said on these on this subject

14:24

And I'm not going to belabor the point and I'm not going to revisit it I could probably talk about it all week long, but and forgive me for departing from the normal Looking at the scripture passage of reading for the day, but I only have an anniversary once a year

14:40

So bear with us and I hope that you know something said today is a little bit helpful to you in whatever whether you're

14:48

Whether you're looking to get married whether you are married Well, you've been married and you have to look back and say what went wrong.

14:55

You know, I I just hope that something is Is an encouragement to you from this little thing.

15:02

So father I pray for our marriages that you would strengthen them and and You would make them biblically strong Bless each husband and wife that would listen today and bless their marriages

15:18

May they be good long ones and we pray it in Jesus name. Amen All right.

15:25

Well, have a good rest of your Monday and Thank you for Bearing with the longer devotional today.