How Your Marriage Can Become a Generational Testimony

I believe consistency is the key to success in your life and especially in your relationships. This can be applied to so many things.

For example, it is the person who eats right, exercises and abides by the principles of health that in the end typically is healthier than others of their same age who ate as they pleased, and was a couch potato. The principle of consistency is also true of wealth. Those who work, save and invest will be wealthier than their peers who spent all of their earnings and whose work habits are slothful.

God also blesses those who consistently seek Him (Heb. 11:6.) Consistency is the key to attaining any goal of significance. Therefore, when we talk about marriage and God’s intent and design for it, it is logical to say consistency is a huge component to a successful marriage filled with love and intimacy.

In the area of marriage and intimacy, this can be no truer. It is those who take the principles of relational health and practice them consistently who are blessed in the end. Husbands and wives who ignore these principles in the end have much less relational intimacy with their spouse.

The Scripture is full of admonitions to finish and push through to the end. This end is what Christians are concerned with. We must stay focused on God’s purpose.

Most people all over the world begin this race of marriage and intimacy when they are young. However, not all couples succeed in the area of marriage and intimacy. Some marriages are dashed apart in divorces because of temptations, sins and many other reasons. This is always sad for all involved. We must search for the principles that work toward building intimacy and try to keep them alive so as to win the race and not just be a part of the race toward intimacy.

Paul makes reference to this issue of finishing and completing the course several times in the New Testament. In 2 Timothy 4:7 Paul says to Timothy about finishing his course “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, and I have kept the faith.”

My favorite verse from Paul is a very powerful one, where the almighty God has given Paul his belief for finishing the race. Let’s look at Acts 20:24 (NIV). “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

Paul’s life resonated with purpose and focus. He yearned for the finish line. His goal was to have run successfully to the end testifying of his Lord Jesus. He so wanted to give God glory in the long term. Although Paul was referring to his personal calling, I think the principle of running to the end of the race can strongly apply to most areas of your life—especially marriage.

I pray to God that we have a generation of Christian marriages that apply the principles of intimacy and that discipline themselves for a lifetime. I can only believe God would receive glory from this.

Let us look at what our Savior Jesus Christ Himself had to say about finishing the course. In John 17:4, Jesus states, “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work You have given Me to do.” Also found in the gospel of John 5:36, Jesus shared this about the issue of finishing: “I have greater testimony than that of John. The works which the Father has given Me to finish, the very works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.”

The Lord Himself has this notion regarding finishing that which God has given to Him. This is really important to apply to husbands and wives. Finishing to the end was one of the things Jesus said we could observe about His life to verify that God has sent Him.

Would it not be great to have that testimony for your spouse, children and grandchildren? That they could look at your life and marriage and know that God has sent you?

I love that principle and I hope myself and all reading this can have a great testimony of intimacy unto the end. {eoa}

Doug Weiss, Ph.D., is a nationally known author, speaker and licensed psychologist. He is the executive director of Heart to Heart Counseling Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the author of several books, including Intimacy. You may contact Dr. Weiss via his website, drdougweiss.com; on his Facebook; by phone at 719-278-3708 or through email at [email protected].