Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Ravi On Marriage


*Marriage is a blend - not just of bodies and affections but, ultimately, of two people walking in stride through the hard moments that would divide any other friendship.

*The chances are that if you marry somebody in violation of your parents' will, you are playing a high stake games as you enter the future.

*Any time you violate an authority that has been put in place by God, you need to be twice as sure you are doing the right thing.

*Chivalry in love has nothing to do with the sweetness of appearance. It has everything to do with the tenderness of heart determined to serve. This is the first hard lesson to learn. You do not act under the impetus of charm but out of a commitment to make someone's life the joy you want it to be. In the early days of marriage, joy precedes the act. Tragically, as the years go by joy can be severed from act until finally, the act itself is no more. This ought not to be. Over time it is the companionship that brings joy, and service is the natural outworking of the joy of commitment. Failure to act kills it.

*Marriage is the harmony of God synchronizing two wills with the will of the Father. When that happens, the heart resounds with the feeling, even though it involves sacrifices.

*When you will is committed to God, He carries you when all else seems spent, to rescue what you had invested by your dedication.

*The work that you do is a mean of providing for the family's needs, but the work you do must never become identical to the life you live. Many homes that have fallen apart wouldn't not have done so if it had been understood and acted upon that there is a time to work and a time to leave work.

*Marriage brings face to face two people committed to God, whose face is distinctively revealed in each as they see other in the light of God, shining on each countenance. God brought them close to each other because each was the other's answer from God, to rescue them from being alone.

* You can be sure that in every marriage the storm will hit. it is in your deep immersion into the Word that your roots will be able to hold the home together. The Word should be the foundation of your home.

*Our confidence should really lay in the strength of the Lord. That is what a well-guarded prayer life can reveal about us, that our trust is not in ourselves but in seeking God's strength for what we do. Prayer is not a substitute for action, but prayer under girds action with the strength that makes the difference.

*Your personal life must be ordered by prayer as a commitment each day. It should not be seen as a burden but as a privilege to seek the face of God before you face the day. However you order your life, the temptations that will stalk you and the conflicts that will confront or confound you can never be met in your own strength.

*The truth is that God calls us to first practise truth in private so that its public expression is merely an outgrowth of what has already taken place in the heart and not a declaration over a hollow life. Developing that strength of character in private is foundational.

*Become a man or woman of prayer. Let your devotional life be the beacon that guides you through the tough terrain you will face. Let your heart and mind be kept close to the principal calling of your life, which is to hunger and thirst after God and his righteousness. Make your day one in which God gets your best so that others share in the rewards of your devotion. Let the thoughts and intents of your heart be guided and shaped by time spent is His presence. Being in God's presence affects all other relationships for the better.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Amen to that.