Just as God formed and filled every aspect of Creation, we must realize that our lives and marriages were addressed in the same way. We cannot truly appreciate the gift of marriage until we comprehend why God gave it to us in the first place.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27).
Designed by God & for God
The earth was without form and void… (Genesis 1:2)
- At the beginning of Creation, God created environments in the first three days and created inhabitants in the latter three days.
- God first formed the structures and then filled them with substance.
- Mankind is the distinct part of Creation meant to bear God’s likeness and experience God’s presence.
- Not only were you made by God, but you were made for God.
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through and for him (Colossians 1:16).
- Not only was marriage made by God, but it was made for God.
- Whenever we try to make marriage about something other than God, that rival proves itself to be our god.
yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist (1 Corinthians 8:6).
How God Uniquely Designed You
- You were formed to portray God’s likeness and filled to enjoy God’s presence.
- Your spouse wants you to be more like God than to be just like him or her.
- While every person bears God’s image, we each display it uniquely.
- Every person is uniquely formed with features and particularly filled with distinctions.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well (Psalm 139:13-14).
- If you aren’t wonderful right now, it’s because you aren’t who God intended you to be.
How God Uniquely Designed Your Spouse
- Your spouse was formed to portray God’s likeness and filled to enjoy God’s presence.
- In a marriage, there are obvious distinctions in how God formed and filled your spouse.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them (Psalm 139:15-16).
- God spent focused time planning the details and the days of your spouse’s life.
- A refusal to accept how God made your spouse is an indictment of his intended design.
- God never asked you to change your spouse but to support him in transforming your spouse to be who God desires them to be.
- When marriage doesn’t work, it is because we are refusing God’s plan on how to form it and fill it.
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.