How to solve marital crisis and ensure happy marriage

How to solve marital crisis and ensure happy marriage

Posted on June 4, 2008 Updated on June 4, 2008

Family Comes From God We All Belong

Genesis  3 vs. 1-24

Happy marriage, marital crisis,

We live in an imperfect world and it is all too easy to get used to the way things are, even though that may be second best or really bad. Imagine that you are the owner of a rusty old bicycle. It is so old that it is hard work to pedal on the flat but you are happy with the way it rattles along.

After all it is the only bicycle in the district. Then your friend who is a mechanic in town comes home. He takes a horrified look at your old bike and sets to work with spanners, screwdrivers and oil. In an hour it’s a completely different machine. You wonder how you could ever have been satisfied with the way it was.

Family can be like the old bicycle. It is in need of repair but we don’t realize because “that’s the way things are.” …..unless we face up to the mess and ugliness of many marriages and families today we will not see the contrast with the glorious possibilities God has prepared for us to enjoy.

Genesis 3 opens as Satan enters the perfect world God made. Adam and Eve are enticed to disbelieve the beauty and goodness of God’s creation. Look at some of the results.

• Shame of nakedness. “They realized they were naked and sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves” (3:7) See the contrast with2:25 when the man and woman were naked and felt no shame. Today, men and women still hide who they really are from each other. There are hidden secrets in many families. We are not open with one another.

• Fear of God. “They hid from the Lord God” (3:8). What a change from Genesis 2 where there was an open relationship with God. Probably Adam and Eve had often walked with God in the cool of the day. Now they hide. We still do.

• Blaming each other (3:12). God asks Adam. “Where are you? Who told you you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree?” God is not impressed when Adam passes the buck saying, “The woman you gave me…”. How far Adam and Eve have fallen from the beauty of their first meeting. Modern families are marred by blaming and accusing one another.

• Conflict in the home. The domination by the husband in 3:16 is part of God’s curse. It is a picture of domestic violence far removed from the harmony and loving headship implied in Genesis 2.

• Fighting between brothers. It got so bad Forget the former things; do not dwell on that Cain murdered his brother (4:8) and went out from the Lord’s presence (4:16).

• Polygamy. Already in Genesis 4 Lamech married two women (4:23). Marriage had become a matter of convenience rather than a partnership growing into oneness(see2: 24)

Source:

‘Families for life Bible Study notes and Sermon Outlines’ by David and Janet Cunningham. Family Impact. Read the full text at: http://www.familyimpact.org.za