Married for God

This series was originally posted on In Tandem, a blog for ministry wives

Married for God, Christopher Ash

Ash introduces Married for God explaining that he has not written a standard marriage book – which he terms as those which help you to get what you want out of marriage. Instead he says:

This book won’t help you with that sort of thing, because this book is about God more that it is about you and me. In some ways it would be easier to write a book of common-sense wisdom and practical advice about sex and marriage, glossing it with a Christian veneer. Instead, I want to start, continue and finish with God firmly at the centre. He is our Maker and he will be our Judge. We need to listen to him. (p14)

Ash states his goal is not to deal with the How? or What? questions of marriage – but rather Why?

If we get our aims clear, then we shall see why marriage has to be what it is, and we will be well placed to see how to build strong marriage. (p15)

So, his opening claim is that:

We ought to want what God wants in marriage. Or, to put it another way, God’s ‘Why?’ matters more than my ‘Why?’ (p15-6, emphasis in original)

When we ask what God wants, we are asking what is best for us. What is best for us is not what we want, but what God wants. (p17)

Ash asks that as we start reading, we repent of our previous attitude – what we want out of marriage, to seeking His will and goals for marriage.

So, what do you think?
Have your thought about what God wants from your marriage?
What His goal for it is?
Are you willing to investigate and find out?

Join us as we read about it together!

Next Monday: Chapter 1 – a word about baggage and grace.