How's your marriage?

A marriage, the union of 2 sinners, is a wonderful thing.  However, without constant care and feeding (washing with the Word of God), prayer and accountability, it can crumble very quickly.  I am reading through the book, The Complete Husband by Lou Priolo.  Wow, it is a fantastically amazing book!  I was able to sit and hear Lou teach through the first chapter while visiting the Teach Them Diligently conference earlier this year and it was a blessing for sure.

I Wish She Came with an Owner's Manual is the title of the first chapter.  Too funny but way too true!

She did come with a manual but we have to get it out of her through revelation.  Getting to know her such that she reveals herself to us and we reveal ourself to her.

Hindrances to Revelation (what prevents her from disclosing to you and vice versa)

1) Fear (Gen 3:7-10)
Rather than be surprised when sin occurs, we ought to presuppose that it's inevitable (1 Jn 2:1).  Rather than concealing sin from one another, we ought to feel free to reveal to each other our struggles with sin in the hope of finding assistance to overcome it.

2) Selfishness
People who are selfish tend to be fearful.  People who are fearful are necessarily selfish.
The antidote is 1 Jn 4:18 and 1 cor 13:5

Fear is the opposite of Love
Love is the opposite of Selfishness

Love is being more concerned with that I can give than with what I can get

Selfishness is being more concerned with what I can get than with what I can give.

Fear is being more concerned with what I might lose than with what I can give.

3) Pride
The sin of pride carries with it God's swiftest and most severe judgement.  It blinds you to other sins in your life and hinders you from repenting of them.

Pride causes us to hate correction and reproof.  It deceives us into thinking that we're spiritually well when, in fact, we have a deadly cancer and are in desperate need of the Great Physician's balm.

Before the fall, Adam and Eve were totally open and honest.  Then their pride caused them to cover their sin.  It's our pride that resists revealing things to our wife which we are ashamed of.  She is our helper and God has placed her in that role to help us become a better Christian.  If we resist revealing these things to her, we are sinning against God, against our wife and our marriage!