Godly Success In Marriage

Godly Success in Marriage - Part 9

Action 5: Trust One Another

Marriage needs trust. Don’t make unwise overtures and create emotional intimacy with people of the opposite sex. Your spouse will worry and for a good reason. Don’t have lunch alone with a member of the opposite sex. If your wife ever says to you that she feels like another woman is getting too close, don’t argue. If your husband ever says he wants you to stop talking so much with another man, listen to him. You can’t betray the trust of your mate.

But you also shouldn’t doubt your mate for no reason. I have had people in my congregation who have been burdened by an unnecessary jealousy. Now if some guy gets too close to my wife, I would be jealous. That’s not a bad thing. God is jealous for his bride.

But if I call home from San Antonio and my wife isn’t there, and I call again at ten o’clock and she isn’t there, I don’t come home and say to this woman who has given me no reason to ever doubt her, “Where were you? Who did you see? Who were you with? Who was it?” That’s just plain wicked. There is no reason in the world for me to doubt my wife.

Frankly, when I see a man who is continually suspicious and wounding the heart of his spouse, my thought is, You have some serious issues. Were you foolish enough to marry someone you can’t trust? Or have you grown doubtful because of sin in your own heart? Unfounded jealousy will eat away at the core of a marriage. You have to trust your mate.

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Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (I Cor. 13:4-7).

posted by Lighthouse @ 9:26 PM