A Prayer For Your Marriage
Sermon
BEST WEDDING MEDITATIONS
By Robert Howard Clausen
(This wedding address was for a young couple, both active members of the church.)
Text: Ephesians 3:14--19
Dear Christian Friends,
In the lesson before us we have a beautiful and moving prayer by the apostle Paul for the people of the church of Ephesus whom he knew well and loved much.
By extension, under the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit, the words of Holy Scripture set down by Paul become a prayer for all of God's people in all ages of the Church's history.
It is meant for each one of us here present who bow our knees unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family - and this means the fellowship of believers - is named.
On this occasion, in this setting, we can apply it most directly, ____________ and ____________, to your situation, as you stand before God's altar to speak your wedding vows.
It becomes, very personally, a prayer for your marriage. There are four parts to this prayer.
First, "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man" (v. 16).
This is an act of God's grace. God, by his Spirit, has given you new birth in your baptism; he has put faith in your hearts; and he has led you to know and to receive his Son as your Savior. He has made you heirs of heaven. God has continued faithful, and has kept you in the true faith.
Now, as you are joined by him in marriage, God the Holy Spirit will continue to provide you with the resources of God's grace, helping you to remain faithful to your promises to God and to one another, helping you to find and to do God's will in your married life together.
As Christians, we are realistic. We know that evil is abroad in the world. We know that the infection of sin in this fallen creation is all--pervasive. We know the weakness of our old nature.
As you face the future together you know there will be pressures from the world, tensions within you, and frictions between you. There will be problems, pains, and disappointments. There will sometimes be agonizing adjustments to new loyalties and new responsibilities. The inner man, the inner woman, renewed in Christ will know weariness, weakness, edginess, fretfulness.
Take heart. The Holy Spirit is at hand to strengthen you, to revive you, to refresh you, to invest you with new vigor spiritually, physically, and emotionally so that you may continue to work with energy and dedication toward the true fulfillment of your married life.
Second, this prayer asks "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith" (v. 17).
The continuing, abiding presence of Christ in your hearts will make the difference between a marriage of form and a marriage of true spiritual meaning. This indwelling of Christ is surely a mark of God's grace. It is the assurance of sins forgiven, a testimony of God's abiding good will toward you.
But the indwelling Christ is also evidence that your hearts are changed in outlook and attitude. The apostle Paul says elsewhere that we are to have "the mind of Christ." This means Christ's attitude. His obedience to the will of God the Father, his concern for the Father's work, his compassion for people, his sensitivity to other's needs are to be the pattern of our thinking and doing. He himself said, "He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).
The indwelling of Christ in our hearts by faith is assured when we open our hearts to the means of grace which God has given us.
Together, you will share the Word of God. Together, you will kneel to receive the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood. Through these channels God will act to make the presence of Christ in your hearts by faith more forceful and real.
Third, the prayer continues, "that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the breadth and length and depth and heights, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge" (vv. 17--19).
You are rooted and grounded in your love for one another, and this is valuable and good. God will bless, honor and sanctify that love as you consecrate it to him day by day.
But to find your most complete unity and ablest support for the burdens, responsibilities, and joys of marriage, we need to be rooted and grounded in a greater love - God's love for us.
May we never fail to see the measure of that love as it has been expressed in Jesus Christ. "To know" this love means to experience it in a personal way. "God commandeth his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8)
God's love, as we see it in Christ, is a complete giving of oneself for the sake of the beloved. The more that we know, understand and experience the love of Christ, the more we will know the kind of love we must give to one another - not selfish, demanding, critical, and repressive, but free, helpful, open, and seeking the fulfillment of one another's personality as a son, a daughter of God in Jesus Christ.
Our love will serve.
Our love will absorb hurt.
Our love will forgive.
Our love will share.
Our love will comfort.
Our love will support.
And our love, as we seek it, will be replenished from the resources of God's boundless love.
Fourth, the prayer concludes, "that ye might be filled with the fulness of God."
This is God's plan for us. To be filled with "the fulness of God" is to become true people.
The Enemy, Satan, would drain us of life and set us on the way of death, perverting our energies and warping our personalities.
Christ exhibits true humanity in all its beauty and Godlike wonder. We are to grow in to him, by God's grace, maturing each day as God's people, being filled with the fulness of God. We want this for each other. We want to help each other to this end.
Therefore, as husband and wife, encourage one another in the faith. Pray for and with one another. Set a Christ--like example for one another. See Christ in each other.
And carry this prayer for your marriage from your wedding day into all your days together, trusting that God will hear, answer, strengthen, and bless you through his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
(This wedding address was for a young couple, both active members of the church.)
Text: Ephesians 3:14--19
Dear Christian Friends,
In the lesson before us we have a beautiful and moving prayer by the apostle Paul for the people of the church of Ephesus whom he knew well and loved much.
By extension, under the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit, the words of Holy Scripture set down by Paul become a prayer for all of God's people in all ages of the Church's history.
It is meant for each one of us here present who bow our knees unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family - and this means the fellowship of believers - is named.
On this occasion, in this setting, we can apply it most directly, ____________ and ____________, to your situation, as you stand before God's altar to speak your wedding vows.
It becomes, very personally, a prayer for your marriage. There are four parts to this prayer.
First, "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man" (v. 16).
This is an act of God's grace. God, by his Spirit, has given you new birth in your baptism; he has put faith in your hearts; and he has led you to know and to receive his Son as your Savior. He has made you heirs of heaven. God has continued faithful, and has kept you in the true faith.
Now, as you are joined by him in marriage, God the Holy Spirit will continue to provide you with the resources of God's grace, helping you to remain faithful to your promises to God and to one another, helping you to find and to do God's will in your married life together.
As Christians, we are realistic. We know that evil is abroad in the world. We know that the infection of sin in this fallen creation is all--pervasive. We know the weakness of our old nature.
As you face the future together you know there will be pressures from the world, tensions within you, and frictions between you. There will be problems, pains, and disappointments. There will sometimes be agonizing adjustments to new loyalties and new responsibilities. The inner man, the inner woman, renewed in Christ will know weariness, weakness, edginess, fretfulness.
Take heart. The Holy Spirit is at hand to strengthen you, to revive you, to refresh you, to invest you with new vigor spiritually, physically, and emotionally so that you may continue to work with energy and dedication toward the true fulfillment of your married life.
Second, this prayer asks "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith" (v. 17).
The continuing, abiding presence of Christ in your hearts will make the difference between a marriage of form and a marriage of true spiritual meaning. This indwelling of Christ is surely a mark of God's grace. It is the assurance of sins forgiven, a testimony of God's abiding good will toward you.
But the indwelling Christ is also evidence that your hearts are changed in outlook and attitude. The apostle Paul says elsewhere that we are to have "the mind of Christ." This means Christ's attitude. His obedience to the will of God the Father, his concern for the Father's work, his compassion for people, his sensitivity to other's needs are to be the pattern of our thinking and doing. He himself said, "He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).
The indwelling of Christ in our hearts by faith is assured when we open our hearts to the means of grace which God has given us.
Together, you will share the Word of God. Together, you will kneel to receive the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood. Through these channels God will act to make the presence of Christ in your hearts by faith more forceful and real.
Third, the prayer continues, "that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the breadth and length and depth and heights, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge" (vv. 17--19).
You are rooted and grounded in your love for one another, and this is valuable and good. God will bless, honor and sanctify that love as you consecrate it to him day by day.
But to find your most complete unity and ablest support for the burdens, responsibilities, and joys of marriage, we need to be rooted and grounded in a greater love - God's love for us.
May we never fail to see the measure of that love as it has been expressed in Jesus Christ. "To know" this love means to experience it in a personal way. "God commandeth his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8)
God's love, as we see it in Christ, is a complete giving of oneself for the sake of the beloved. The more that we know, understand and experience the love of Christ, the more we will know the kind of love we must give to one another - not selfish, demanding, critical, and repressive, but free, helpful, open, and seeking the fulfillment of one another's personality as a son, a daughter of God in Jesus Christ.
Our love will serve.
Our love will absorb hurt.
Our love will forgive.
Our love will share.
Our love will comfort.
Our love will support.
And our love, as we seek it, will be replenished from the resources of God's boundless love.
Fourth, the prayer concludes, "that ye might be filled with the fulness of God."
This is God's plan for us. To be filled with "the fulness of God" is to become true people.
The Enemy, Satan, would drain us of life and set us on the way of death, perverting our energies and warping our personalities.
Christ exhibits true humanity in all its beauty and Godlike wonder. We are to grow in to him, by God's grace, maturing each day as God's people, being filled with the fulness of God. We want this for each other. We want to help each other to this end.
Therefore, as husband and wife, encourage one another in the faith. Pray for and with one another. Set a Christ--like example for one another. See Christ in each other.
And carry this prayer for your marriage from your wedding day into all your days together, trusting that God will hear, answer, strengthen, and bless you through his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
