How to know you are ready to say “I do”
“Do you take this man to be your husband, to live together in holy matrimony, to love him, to honor him, to comfort him, and to keep him in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, for as long as you both shall live?" A familiar clause of wedding ceremonies, broken by 50% of the people who respond, “I do.” Marriage is an intimate covenant God created in His garden. How do we know we are ready for marriage? Once married, how do we build a healthy marriage to stay committed to our professed “I do”?
Acknowledge God
Genesis 2:18 tells us God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” God created Adam and upon observation noticed Adam needed company. Therefore, God responded by creating Adam a helper compatible with him. The God of the Old Testament written in Genesis, still exists today. God has fashioned us. We can trust He observes our needs. We can trust God created our comparable spouse. Note Genesis makes no mention of Adam seeking Eve. Adam spent time with God and concerned himself with God’s appointed responsibility to name the animals God created (Genesis 2:19). Adam’s commitment to God’s ordained responsibility lent itself to Adam experiencing God’s desired work in his life.
Trust God
Genesis 2: 21-22 shows us God’s hand at work on Adam’s behalf, “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.” Notice God’s involvement in every aspect of Adam’s meeting Eve. God caused. God took. God closed. God brought. Adam slept.
Society and culture will propose a different model.
Adam seek. Adam swipe. Adam strive.
Let God
Jesus shared with the Pharisees God’s heart towards marriage in Mark 10, “But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” Jesus quoting Genesis 2:24 communicates the promise of marriage, a leaving and cleaving ordained and orchestrated by the Creator. Not society’s counterfeit marriage contracts with mere financial penalties upon violation.
Christ Invitation
Considering marriage? Married? Bride of Christ, Jesus invites us to not harden our hearts (Mark 10:5). Spend time with God like Adam, who walked with God in the coolness of the day. Commit yourself to the responsibilities God already assigned you. Delight yourself in God and He will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4). Acknowledge God places the desire of marriage within you. Trust God to fashion your comparable spouse. Let God join you and your spouse. Then awake like Adam, allow poetry to flow from your heart off your lips (Genesis 2:23), and not be ashamed (Genesis 2:25).
