Today’s message in church reminded us that we need to be self-controlled and alert. “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
They then showed a visual clip of a lion preying upon an isolated animal. As I thought about this in terms of marriage, I know there are many wives and husbands who are in a less-than-satisfying relationship. A large percentage of divorces occur because a couple drifts apart. Couples lose goodwill toward the other. They become more and more detached, begin keeping score and draw conclusions (often false) about the other’s motives. One begins to exclude the other and before long loneliness and isolation are about all that’s left in the marriage. Yes, they may reside in the same house, eat at the same table, sleep in the same bed, but emotionally and spiritually they are alone. And this is one of the enemy’s main strategies for destroying a marriage.
According to Dr. Willard Harley, Jr., author of His Needs/Her Needs, “once a spouse lacks fulfillment of any (basic) needs, it creates a thirst that must be quenched. If changes do not take place within the marriage to care for that need, the individual will face the powerful temptation to find it outside the marriage.” And this is where the enemy likes to step in. Satan’s plan places doubt, discouragement, diversion (making the wrong things seem attractive so that you want them more than the right things), defeat (you don’t even want to try anymore), and delay (puts off working on things so nothing improves.) So be self-controlled and alert. Make the right choices and then put the necessary work into building oneness into your marriage, as God intended. Begin with Him. “A cord of three strands isn’t easily broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:12
Grace and peace,
Penny and David