MARRIAGE WAS CREATED TO PLEASE GOD

 CHAPTER ONE

MARRIAGE WAS CREATED TO PLEASE GOD

During my waking moments one blessed morning in 2009, the Holy Spirit asked me this question: “WHAT DID GOD CREATE MARRIAGE FOR?” This came after my wife and I had had three Sunday sessions with the married women in our church. My wife, who is in charge of the married women’s fellowship, had asked the women to write down issues they would love to be urgently handled concerning their marriages. She drew my attention to what they had written down and we both had a sense of urgency to address the women first of all, rather than for me to lash out at the men. It was after my wife and I had met the women on three consecutive Sundays, and while intending to continue for a few more Sundays, that the Holy Spirit threw this question at me;

“WHAT DID GOD CREATE MARRIAGE FOR?”

Since we all have heard it preached several times in church, at wedding ceremonies and during marriage workshops or seminars, it wasn’t difficult for me to find answers to this very important question. So, I gladly answered the Holy Spirit and told Him what I had known; that ‘Marriage was created for Companionship, Procreation, and S$xual Intimacy. Sincerely, I thought that was all that God created marriage for but was stunned to hear the Holy Spirit ask me further, “AND WHAT ELSE?” I became very quiet and couldn’t find any additional thing to say. But thank God, He was gracious enough to tell me the answer while I sat calmly on the bed. I heard him say to me; “Marriage was created to please God.”

Wow! Something lit up within me when I heard this. I must confess that this was totally new to me. I have never thought of it like that – that marriage was created to please God! In another way, it means marriage was created “to give God pleasure or great delight.” God loves to take delight in the marriage that reflects His desire. When the Holy Spirit told me this, He immediately took my mind to the scriptures and expanded the truth to me. It was then that I realized all the more why many marriages have broken down. Mine would have gone too, if not for the gracious God who intervened. He warned me and taught me the truth that is contained in this book, and from several counsels we got from our Pastor and his wife -Pastor Taiwo Odukoya and Pastor Bimbo Odukoya at the time. Kindly learn 7-POINT AGENDA MARRIAGE – REDISCOVERING MORE

• Marriages breakdown either when the major stakeholders (husband and wife) fail to apply the truth of God’s Word relating to them as partners, or when they are totally ignorant of what marriage is all about. When this happens, there’s no way the creator of marriage will be happy with such people in their union. It’s true to note that a whole marriage can completely perish, due to non-application of the Word of God and especially when one of the two people in that marriage refuses to cooperate
• Marriage is an institution created by God to summarily please Him.

The Holy Spirit used Revelation chapter 4:11 to buttress this salient point and rare revelation to me. “Thou craftsmanship commendable, O Master, to get radiance and respect and control: for thou hast made all things, and for thy delight they are and were made“ KJV.

Please note, that each individual was created to live his or her life to please God and glorify His name. Apostle Paul, in Acts 17:24 explains, that He made the worlds and all things therein. And also in Colossians 1:16, that all things were created by Him and for Him. The One who created us and everything on earth and in heaven, including the marriage institution, owns it all. All the glory is His.

When two individuals (male and female) get married:

1. Both are expected to do to each other what would gladden God’s heart;
2. Their contribution is for their mutual benefit and enhancement of God’s purpose for their lives;
3. It is the place of God to take the pleasure and the glory that is due to Him in their marriage.

Revelation 4:11 summarily describes that everything that’s in existence was created by God to give Him glory.

The word glory (dóxa in Greek), describes the recognition of all things belonging absolutely to God as the Creator. He created everything and marriage is not excluded! The last part of Revelation 4:11, beautifully captures it all; “for thy pleasure they are and were created.” In other words, we all exist and have our being for God’s delight. The New Living Translation says, “… For YOU CREATED EVERYTHING, and it is FOR YOUR PLEASURE that THEY EXIST AND WERE CREATED” (4:11b).

So, marriage exists for God’s pleasure. The word pleasure connotes joy, gladness, and delight. In the Greek, it carries the meaning of an ‘act or choice of purpose, will or desire.’ In other words, God delights in us when we live our lives doing His will. When couples do the will of God, it rebounds onto His glory – dóxα.

An Illustration

CASE #1: A Father with His Faithful Children!

Imagine, an earthly father with ten children; and all are doing very well, working together for the progress of that family! How will that father feel? Proud and very delightful for that matter! He would be proud of each child and be very happy that all of them are working together as one family. Now, bringing this -Revelation 4:11 to bear in marriage, let me particularly use my wife and I as an example to show how the Holy Spirit simplified this for me.

God allowed our parents to bring us to this world as babies at different times, and for a specific mission on earth. That mission was for each of us to live our separate lives, all in a bid to pleasing God first. We met each other in 1988 after we got born again at different times, and later discovered God’s will for us to become marriage partners. I proposed to her on January 22, 1989 and by God’s grace we got married in 1991. As our individual life was meant to give God pleasure, so also our marriage life! Now, having been married, it is very pertinent to know, that our lives, being bonded in “One flesh” covenant in Christ MUST HIGHLY BE MADE TO PLEASE GOD. This is what we resolved doing in our hearts, in spite of the several challenges that might come our way. My wife and I are fully expected by God to express our mutual love, to use our marriage to make Him happy and give Him great delight. This is to say, that in marriage, we (all couples) have the greatest opportunity to serve and please God more in a mutual or contributory sense. That is, double our efforts to achieve one main purpose marriage glorify God. to make our

The Holy Spirit made me to understand, that my wife and I have been created to give God pleasure or please Him with our lifestyles before ever we had dreamt of meeting each other in Christ. So,…

• Our coming together in marriage SHOULD THEREFORE BE MORE PLEASING TO GOD.
• This is a doubling-effect of what is described in Ecclesiastes 4:9. (See pages 57, 82 and 94 for more).

Ever since God taught us this truth, that marriage was created to please God, my wife and I have known great peace in our marriage – by treating each other with the carefulness of God’s love, so the creator of our marriage (God) will have nothing else but the satisfactory glory He truly deserves. We cannot afford to treat each other less than how and what God expects from us, if we must enjoy the honour that marriage holds. This is not to say that we have had no challenges. We have had our numerous challenges, but have learned from the Holy Spirit to overcome them as we work together as one.

1. Marriages either crumble or succeed, based on what marriage partners do to themselves with their own agenda, or the Word of God respectively.
2. What you do to your wife or husband will either please God or displease Him.
3. Pleasing God withlin your marriage will definitely rebound to the glory of God our Father!

Your being has been configured to satisfy Him for the reason you were created – to have dominion (See Genesis 1:26, 27). Your marriage is like a spiritual Eden of God on earth, instituted by God to effectively spread God’s Kingdom to the larger world, in order to cause a rebounding of His glory. In our summary so far, – adding to what we have previously learned, we can say that marriage was created by God;

1. For companionship;
2. For procreation;
3. For s$xual intimacy and enjoyment, and,
4. To please God (give God pleasure).

However, since you have taken the time to follow me to this point, there is a clearer understanding now for us to re-arrange the above points as a matter of priority as we have it below. That is to say, marriage was created by God:

1. To please Him (give God pleasure);
2. For companionship;
3. For procreation;
4. For s$xual intimacy and enjoyment.

God’s Interest Must Be Uppermost

Only God deserves the total glory from all that He has created, and this includes the MARRIAGE He institutionalized. We have four different areas or levels wherein the union of a man and a woman must give God the pleasure and the glory He so deserves. Husbands and wives must please God in, their relationship with:

1. God;
2. Each other;
3. Their major vision/work or ministry (Gen. 2:18), and finally;
4. Raising their children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

If every Christian couple endeavors to utilize the grace of God available to them, through the Word -to do everything possible to making sure their marriage pleases God – marriage troubles will be reduced to the barest minimum. There will be no separation or divorce. The devil would have probably taken his crusade of separation and divorce to another planet! Apart from husband and wife loving and submitting to themselves in order to please God, one other area God has created marriage to please Him or give Him glory is in the area of ministry. The New Living Translation states:

“… the Lord God planted a garden in the East, there He placed the man He had made…. TO TEND and WATCH OVER IT” -Gen. 2:8, 15.

This will make me say few things here about one of the aforementioned reasons why God created marriage, and that is, companionship.

COMPANIONSHIP!

Nothing good ever gets started without God! When creating human beings, God started with one man called Adam and gave him a wife – Eve (originally named Woman). God’s creative work wasn’t going to be completed until He made the woman. This woman was created to be alongside the man, to function in her divine role as a helper. Beginning 2:18 says, “And the Master God said, “It is not great that man ought to be alone; I will make him a aide comparable to him”. The Great News Interpretation says At that point the Master God said, “It is not great for the man to live alone. I will make a suitable companion to help him.”

The woman, as help meet (Hebrew ‘Ezer) was created to be a loving companion to her husband. Therefore, she is to share his responsibility and cooperate with him, in fulfilling God’s purpose for his life and the lives of their family members -Ephesians 5:22. When God gives a man his help meet, in a way it’s like God helping the man through his wife, just like God is using the church through the Holy Spirit to help Christ in His continuing work of reconciliation on earth. In marriage, companionship describes a feeling of love and fellowship or friendship that husband and wife share together. When God made the woman from one bone of the man, (also representing one flesh) He illustrated that in marriage, the man and his wife are symbolically united as one. It is a special partnership. Genesis 2:25 has this to say of Adam and his wife, “And they were both NAKED and were NOT ASHAMED.” The Bible uses the keyword “NAKED” (which stands for transparency and sincerity), to set precedence for all marriages that must attain fulfilment. I call this holy nakedness.

1. Your marriage can only please God in doing the assignment you have been created for;
2. You must keep the commitment that makes you and your spouse one;
3. If God created you to worship Him and to give Him all the glory due to Him in taking dominion, then, you and your spouse should give God the glory in a greater dimension than as being individuals.

It’s unfortunate to know that many women go hunting for a man that would just love then, without preparing themselves to be that man’s helper first of all! It takes two in God to truly make it work. We are told in Philippians 2:13, that “God is the one working among you both… willing and working for what pleases him” (CJB). But we must be willing to allow Him to do this, so that the glory would completely be His. Someone might as well say, suppose my husband is not treating me well in spite of how well I have treated him? Does that cruel my marriage has fizzled to it would be ideal if you God? This is a exceptionally vital address that must not be ignored. This will bring us to discuss it in the next chapter.