Being married and such.

"Think of all of the great fairy tales. Notice that in every last one of them, the kingdom hangs in the balance; evil is advancing upon the land. What are they trying to tell us? The very thing the Bible has been trying to tell us...

...In the beginning, the devil convinces two newlyweds that they cannot trust the heart of God. He deceives them. They break the one command God gave. They reach, they fall. The beautiful kingdom is overthrown by darkness, into darkness. The circle of intimacy is broken.

But love is more powerful than Satan thought. God will not abandon His beloved, even though we have abandoned Him. He comes for us. He fights to win us back.

In the world's darkest moment, love shines through. In spite of betrayal, idolatry, and chronic unbelief on our part, God loves us and pursues us. And His love wins the ransom of mankind.

The vicious battle we find ourselves in is over the human heart- if you hadn't noticed - and hearts are famously vulnerable and in desperate need of sanctuary. Marriage is meant to throw the balance of power on our side. You're going to need one another.

A love story, set in the midst of desperate times. It is a story of redemption, a story of healing; it is a story of love.

Our love is meant to be a picture of both his love and his fight. The masculine and the feminine, the courage and the sacrifice, and yes, the blood, sweat, and tears - these play out for us and for the world the story of truest Love and His Beloved.

God is a great lover, and he created marriage to play out on this earth a daily, living, breathing portrait of the intimacy he longs for with his people. Which might help you appreciate why the fury of hell has been unleashed against it. God is telling a love story and the setting is war...

Marriage is hard. It is hard because it is opposed.

C.S. Lewis said, "But we all need to be very careful about our tempers, seeing all the hard times we shall have to go through together. Won't do to quarrel, you know. At any rate, don't begin it too soon. I know these expeditions usually end that way: knifing one another." It is a wonder we haven't come to knives.

If you look again at the stories God writes, they are nearly always tales of desperate battles against insurmountable odds by the most unlikely heroes in the world. Your marriage is being written by the same Author.

Without you, your spouse will not become the man or woman that God intends him or her to be and the Kingdom of God will not advance as it is meant to advance...you are the human being who plays the most significant role in your spouse's life.

Marriage is a divine conspiracy. It is a conspiracy divinely arranged with divine intent. God uses marriage to transform you. Think back on those fairy tales - in every one of those stories, the boy and girl both carry a fatal flaw. If they refuse their transformation, which is essential to the plot, they'll never make it. Evil will win, they will lose heart and split up, and there will be no happily ever after.

Marriage will ask everything of you.

Of course loving costs everything - look at the cross.

But loving is always worth it."

[Quotes taken from Love and War by John and Stasi Elderedge.]