4 Ways You Can Encourage a New Bride by @JenniferOWhite

I’m sixteen years into my second marriage and frankly I’m amazed by what I have not known about love until recently. I’m almost forty years into my life with Christ and I’m surprised at how much I’ve learned about His faithfulness in the last few years. God has always loved me. He’s always been faithful to me. But something kept me from experiencing that truth for way too many years.

The fight to save my marriage to David, my current husband, revealed the war between the Covenant Keeper and the Marriage Destroyer. Biblical counseling and in-depth Bible study revealed God’s impeccable character and unlimited power to help me in my now, not just my later. I woke up to the reality of  “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12) Eventually I learned that God created marriage to be a reflection of His enduring and merciful love to a very imperfect Bride.  And now the spiritual battle waged against every marriage makes perfect sense. God’s enemy wants to destroy anything that reflects God so beautifully.

What if I had known this at the beginning of my first marriage? What if every bride saying “I DO” knew it walking into her promise to love, honor and cherish for the rest of her life. God has inspired me to share what I’ve learned and the book, Prayers for New Brides: Putting on God’s Armor after the Wedding Dress, was born. It’s something you can use to insure your new bride knows who she is fighting and who is fighting for her.

But you have a story to tell too. You have experiences with the God who sees, helps, plans and keeps His promises. Let those truths be the mustard seeds of faith your pass along to the new brides in your life. You can use these biblical accounts of God’s victories to encourage her if you are not sure where to start in sharing your own.

God Sees You

God saw Abraham’s faith, declared him righteous and offered him more than he could have asked or imagined. Both Sarah and Abraham were too old to have children but God was able to make it so. God sees the imperfections two people bring into marriage and He is not afraid that they might not make it.

God Wants to Help You

God has no fear because He is the Victorious Warrior. He is all-powerful. He has unlimited wealth. He is able to rest His power on every couple’s weaknesses. His power applied to Abraham and Sarah’s age and years of barrenness brought them a son. But Isaac, their son, was just a glimpse of what God had planned.

God Plans

God saw how much the world needed a Savior – someone who could pay the premium for the mercy every spouse will need. Abraham and Sarah’s marriage was part of God’s plan to deliver Jesus to the world. Both husband and wife grew weary waiting for Isaac and gave in to the temptation to fix the problem on their own. But God’s mercy triumphed over the judgment they deserved. Isaac was born. Jesus came from Abraham’s lineage. And God’s mercy is new every morning to each spouse who fails God and the marriage vows.

God Keeps His Promises

God’s promise to make Abraham a father of many nations was fulfilled. He kept His promise to send a Savior to release those who are imprisoned by the kingdom of darkness. The spiritual battle to steal, kill, and destroy a marriage was won when Jesus overcame the grave. The same power that resurrected Jesus is able to resurrect a dying marriage. Trusting the promises of God leads to victory in life and marriage.

God makes everything beautiful in its time. The beautiful marriage every bride desires takes time and faith that God sees, He wants to help, and He has a plan.

 

Jennifer O. White is the author of Prayers for New Brides: Putting on God’s Armor After the Wedding Dress. With fierce honesty, she shares her own experience of one failed marriage and one rescued by the Wonderful Counselor. Praying God’s Word is her passion and she’s inviting all brides to guard their marriage with the Sword of His Spirit. You’ll find her blogging about prayer at jenniferowhite.com.