Divorce Stats:

Some 41% of first marriages end in divorce. It goes higher when it comes to second marriages, with 67% ending in divorce and that number climbs even higher for third marriages, as 73% of them end in divorce.

To Be Faithful In Marriage You Have To Maintain

Reveal Answer

In The

Reveal Answer

Of Marriage

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for…These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” —Hebrews 11:1-2, 39-40

What Are The Promises Of Marriage?

“The essence of marriage is a promise.” —Tim Keller

Your Traditional Vows:

“I,

, take you,

Reveal Answer

, to be my (husband/wife), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death do us part.”

Here’s a list of promises:

1. To have (to belong to someone else)
2. To hold (to be physically intimate)
3. From this day forward (a promise of continuity and endurance)
4. To love (a promise of affection)
5. To cherish (a promise to be adored or treasured)
6. Until death do us part (a promised ending)

Everything else mentioned are the limits of the promise. In other words, it’s an all encompassing promise. It’s a promise for the good times and the bad, for the hard times and the good. It’s for when you are healthy or when you are not.

Marriage Isn’t A

Reveal Answer

, But A

Reveal Answer

We have all types of contracts - renting a car, buying a house, pest control. But these are all very easily broken.

Covenants were made for life. This is why at the end of our vows, we include the clause, as long as we both shall live or until death does us part. The promises and covenant we are making with our spouse is a lifetime promise and what we are saying is that the only way to get out of this covenant is for one of us to die.

Faith is for promises not yet realized or received. In other words, when you get married you are making promises IN FAITH. You don’t have the promises. Your spouse is making promises to you, but they are not fulfilled because they are lifelong promises, faith is believing they will continue to be fulfilled along the way.

Older Presbyterian Vows:

“Wilt thou have this (woman/man) to be thy (wife/husband), and wilt thou pledge thy faith to (him/her), in all love and honor, in all duty and service, in all faith and tenderness, to live with (her/him), and cherish (her/him), according to the ordinance of God, in the holy bond of marriage?”

God

Reveal Answer

That The Two Shall Become One

Shall means it has not FULLY come to pass. The promise is that we will become one flesh and God is the one who brings this promise to pass.

Unfaithfulness Is

Reveal Answer

Against God’s

Reveal Answer

If the goal of marriage is that two become one, the problem with unfaithfulness is that it is us rebelling against that process. It halts it.

“And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.” —Malachi 2:13-14

What does it look like to be

Reveal Answer

?

1. Faithfulness is remaining
   Reveal Answer
   .
2. Faithfulness means being
   Reveal Answer
   .
3. Faithfulness is staying
   Reveal Answer
   .

Prayer & Journaling Points

1. Father, in what areas am I struggling with being unfaithful to my promises?
2. Lord, what actions can I take to encourage hope in my spouse?