Benefits of Marriage: The Spiritual Side

The Bible tells us that there are a lot of benefits to marriage. We already learned about a whole slew of benefits of marriage found by researchers yesterday, but what does the Bible have to say about marriages? God created marriage because He saw that "it is not good for man to be alone" (Bible, Genesis 2:18).

Marriage really is a God thing. He created marriage because He knew that man and woman needed one another. As I mentioned in "Benefits of Marriage: Friend for Life," we are relational human beings who desire to be known. God knew that about us when He created us (He created us that way), and so he established the idea of marriage for our benefit. The wonderful thing about that is He wants to help our marriages, if we are willing to make Him apart of them. Seek Him, pray to Him, place your marriage, self, & spouse before Him daily, invite Him into your marriage. Not only do we have a companion to go through life with in our spouse, but we also enjoy some pretty cool benefits that come straight from the creator of marriage.

In Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, the Bible tells us one of the key benefits of marriage: "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls for he has no one to help him." Wow. I don't know about you, but this is pretty profound to me. It's a pretty amazing concept that God has given us a companion so that when we fall in life, the other is there to help pick us up. I'm not sure about you, but I have fallen many times in my life and know that I probably will continue to do so. That's one of the wonderful things I have experienced in my marriage; when I "fall" Steve is right there to help pick me up and visa versa. Not only does it help me/him to recover more quickly, but we bond in that situation as well. It's kind of simple but so true...two are better than one.

In Matthew 18:20, the Bible gives us another big clue as to the benefit of marriage. "For where two or more are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." The cool thing about this verse is that it lets us know that because we have our spouse, we have a prayer partner that helps us to have a direct connection with God. If we get together with our spouse to pray for something, God's going to be right there in our midst. He cares about us, and as a married couple, we are blessed with an automatic ability to have God meet with us. Not sure about you, but I think this is a pretty powerful resource to have available for anyone who gathers before His name.

One of my favorite parts about marriage has been the glimpse of God's love for me. What do I mean? Well, there are times I know that I do not deserve an ounce of Steve's love. I don't deserve for him to cherish and adore me, but he does regardless. He loves me when I am completely unlovable, and in those moments, I feel the brush of God's fingertip on my life. It's a glimpse of how much more my heavenly Father must love me even though I am broken, ugly, and flat out unlovable at times. Marriage is this amazing opportunity to display the love we have for our spouse, but it's also a way to show our spouse the incredible love that God has for us in spite of all our ugliness, which is just an overwhelmingly amazing experience to have.