You And Me Forever: Marriage In Light Of EternitySample

"Stop Trying so Hard"

Paul says we what so often feel in Romans 7: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (v. 15). This is what it’s like to try to please God apart from the power of God’s Spirit. 

How many couples have seen the dysfunction in their marriages and decided to work harder to make the needed changes? 

Maybe you’ve been in exactly this spot. You want so badly for your marriage to be fixed, you try so hard to become the kind of person your spouse needs you to be, you work like crazy to give more, be more, do more. Yet your doubled and redoubled efforts never get you anywhere. You continue to find yourself back where you started—or worse.

But the Holy Spirit changes everything. The Bible promises that apart from the Spirit, our intense labor will be fruitless. And that is exactly why God sent His Spirit to live within us. God gave us the Holy Spirit so that every aspect of our lives would be transformed.

The Spirit of God is the very power that raised Jesus from the dead! Without question, it’s impossible to make a dead person live again. And yet the power of the Spirit did exactly that in Jesus! And that same Spirit is living in you right now if you have a relationship with Him!

You may feel exhausted. You may have tried and failed more times than you can count. Turning your marriage around may seem impossible. It is. But the Holy Spirit makes the impossible possible. 

Discuss with your spouse: How have you tried and failed in your marriage? What do you believe the Holy Spirit could accomplish in your marriage?