Something I wish I knew before I got married: Part III

3. Our marriage needs armor.

Do you ever feel like giving up on your marriage? 

I'll have to honestly admit, there have been times when thoughts of giving up on my marriage have crossed my mind. Even if it was just for a second. 

Those were the times when I was at my lowest with my husband and it felt like we were on two totally different planets. Either he did something that I didn't agree with for the hundredth time or he said something to me that hurt me and made me mad or upset. 

It was probably one of those selfish times when I was basing how I felt on how he was acting and being.

The devil knows how to come into your marriage, especially when you and your spouse are doing good and think you have things all figured out. The devil knows how to sneak up and pounce at the most happiest moments of your lives. 

He knows how to take the most innocent actions or words and twist them in your head to the worst possible scenarios, just so you will hurt and possibly make someone else hurt along with you. 

It's only human of us to want someone else to hurt as much as we do when we're hurting. We want someone to understand that we're hurting and we want them to feel it too, so they'll sympathize with us or feel sorry for us. The devil knows that. He knows how human we are. 

Why does the devil want so much to do with our marriages and godly relationships? 

Because the devil wants nothing more than to get rid of the relationships that he knows can bring you, your spouse, your children, and all of those who people that look up to you, closer to God. The devil wants to keep you from having that close relationship with God, by taking away your Christ-centered relationships. 

The world makes it so easy to end relationships nowadays. You can end them over a text, a phone call, or an email. You can even hire someone else to do it for you, to save you the trouble. The devil knows about all of those things. He wants you to think about those things and resort to thinking about how easy it would be to just end things and be done with it. 

So in other words, the more you put God in the center of your relationships, the more you get closer to those people who help you get closer to God, the harder the devil will try to make it harder on you to keep those relationships.

How in the world are we supposed to keep those relationships, if the devil is fighting so hard against them? How are we to resist the devil, when he comes to us so beautifully wrapped?

Our God has already defeated the devil and He has given us the authority to defeat him as well.

Ephesians 6:10-18 says this, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorites, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand. Stand firm then, witht he belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."

We have to be equipped with the armor that God has provided for us to resist all of the devil's evil shenanigans.

We should be quick to pray for the armor of God as soon as it becomes evident that things are going in the wrong direction with our relationship with our spouse. That means as soon as you begin to feel something negative, you should pause. Pray. Breathe. Make sure you have your armor on. Then act. THEN speak. 

By resisting the devil, we resist those moments of wanting to give up. Those moments of doubting that we can keep going.

I've just recently had something happen with my husband that took all I had to hold it together. I was falling apart and didn't know what I should do, how I should act, or how I should handle the situation. I stopped, prayed to God and asked for His armor, and then what I needed to do and say became clear to me. Being quick to pray not only helped me handle that situation, but it helped some other things unfold that needed to get aired out. It brought me closer to God and my husband and I became closer together.

Things aren't necessarily easier now, but they were never meant to be easy. They were meant to be God's way and with God's way comes the devil's schemes to try to lead you away from God's way.

Don't give up on your marriage, because it's the easy thing to do. It's not over yet.

Don't only put the armor of God over yourself... try putting the armor of God over your marriage and sock it to the devil! Then see how things work out.
Our marriages are so precious to God, but they are also precious to the devil. God wants them to flourish, the devil wants them to fail, to make us bitter people, and to make us LONELY people. If we put the Armor of God on our marriage, then we can conquer the devil, not only as individuals, but as a married couple.

I'm so thankful God has given me a teammate to share my armor with, make sure you share your armor with your teammate too!