(Taken from: https://www.bible.com/en-GB/reading-plans/12962-kingdom-marriage)
Devotional Day 1
When a couple announces their engagement, most people want to hear “their story.” How did they meet? Was it love at first sight? Were they childhood sweethearts, or did they meet later in life? Whatever the case may be, a couple’s origin story intrigues us.
Have you ever considered the origin story of marriage itself? If you want to have a healthy marriage, the first thing you must understand is that marriage is God’s idea. And because He created it, we must go to Him for its definition and understanding. This means that when your marriage, whatever its origin story, is brought under the rule of God, your relationship can flourish and become all that God intended it to be.
From Scripture, we discover that God created marriage to expand His kingdom in human history. A kingdom marriage is “a covenantal union between a man and a woman who commit themselves to function in unison under divine authority in order to replicate God’s image and expand His rule in the world through both their individual and joint callings.” That’s a mouthful, so you may want to go back and re-read it. But simply put, the mission of marriage is to replicate the image of God in history and to carry out His command to let mankind rule.
So, marriage is not merely a social construct. Nor is happiness its goal. This is one of the main problems that many marriages face today. Couples relate to marriage only through social and emotional terms. We must go back to the biblical understanding of marriage. God created it as a sacred covenant, with the responsibility to reflect His image and to advance His kingdom. Happiness is a benefit of marriage, but it is not the goal of marriage. The goal is to reflect God through advancing His kingdom on earth. Happiness occurs as an organic outgrowth when the biblical goal is pursued.
The bottom line is marriage is a kingdom concept, not just a social one.
Question:
How does making happiness the goal of marriage create problems in your marriage?
Genesis 1:26-28 Genesis 2:18-25 Psalms 8:3-6 Reflection: Based on today's reading & Bible verses, what is one thing God is saying to you about your marriage?
Write this down and spend some time in prayer meditating on any actionable points.