Text: Rom.1:29-32

Memory:

Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they” which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Rom.1:31-32)

Today, let us take a fresh look at your marital vows, the potentials inherent in them to make us experience a successful marital life, and the attendant implications when broken.

The marriage vow is a covenant between husband and wife in the presence of God, with family, friends, and well wishers serving as witnesses to the contract. Let us take a sample of the vow which you took on your wedding day. It may not be the exact words but the implication of each variation is still the same.

“I, ___, take thee, ___, to be my wedded husband/wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward,

for better, for worse,

for richer, for poorer,

in sickness and in health,

to love and to cherish,

till death do us part,

according to God’s holy ordinance;

and thereto I pledge thee my faith [or] pledge myself to you.”

To have and to hold means you won’t let go, from that day forward. If you don’t want to let something go, it means you will not be careless with it. Let me ask you, are you sure that you are not careless with your spouse? Do you pay attention to his/her welfare the way you will do for someone you don’t want to let go?

You also affirmed that no circumstance of life, that is, poverty, sickness etc., will ever separate you; through them all, you would continue holding on to your spouse.

Finally, you covenanted to love and cherish till death do you part. Going through 1Cor.13:4-8, will you say that you really love your spouse with your endless complaints and apparent inability to accommodate faults? To cherish means to treasure another, to value deeply, to hold dear, to prize above all else, to treat with gentleness and tender care, to esteem, to appreciate, to treat with utmost importance etc. If we love and truly cherish each other, how can we have anything but happy and lasting marriages?

Finally, in the last part, you pledged yourself according to God’s ordinance to your spouse before God and man that the covenant will prevail throughout the lifetime of either of you.

When therefore there are offenses and you are threatening divorce or you have separated or got yourself entangled with another member of the opposite sex, you have broken a covenant, the consequences of which you can’t run away from, except you go back to your spouse and seek God’s forgiveness.

Are you a covenant keeper or covenant breaker?

Discussion Points With Your Spouse

• Can you still locate your wedding programme? Take another look at the marital vows in it or the one above and study it carefully. Will you still be able to take those vows today? Why?

• Tell your spouse if there is any reason why you may not be able to take him/her to the altar and retake those vows.

PRAYER

May I never become a covenant breaker in Jesus name.

QUOTABLE QUOTE.

YOUR MARITAL VOWS ARE THE COVENANT BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR SPOUSE THAT YOU WILL BE FREELY AVAILABLE FOR EACH OTHER THROUGHOUT YOUR LIFETIME. ARE YOU STILL AVAILABLE FOR YOUR SPOUSE? – Dr. Mike Oluniyi.