The Lord is my husband

For thy maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called. Isaiah 54:5

Brothers and Sisters, I always knew I would be married at the age of 27. It is a realization that just seemed to spring into my consciousness in my teenage years. I had no basis or rational explanation for my conviction, but it simply is something that came into my heart, felt right and stayed there: By the age of 27 I will be married.

And so as the years went by the conviction remained in my heart, striking in its resilience; resilient because even when I saw disappointment in relationships the conviction did not disappear with every passing year. It remained: By the age of 27 I will be married.

And now, I thank God that on a blessed day like this at the age 27 God will grant me understanding. Many times we attempt to understand spiritual things with our human minds, to see heavenly things with our physical eyes. At a split second sometime in the middle of the day truth came and left me speechless. Now I see clearly and I understand fully: At the age of 27 I am married and THE LORD is my husband.

The role of a husband

In this new found clarity I marvel at all the signs in my life that had passed over my understanding: That every role of a husband has been fulfilled by God in my life. When I submitted to him the way a wife submits to her husband, he loved and took care of me the way a husband should love and take care of his wife.

Many times a husband will speak loving words to his wife in expression of his love, God has spoken wonderful words when he told me “Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood anymore. For thy maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called” Isaiah 54:4-5

The husband seeks out the wife

I did not seek out the Lord, he sought me out. The truth is that God had his eye on us long before we even thought about coming to him. This is why he sent his Son our savior Jesus Christ to die for our sins long before we were even born into this world. We do not choose God, God chooses us. God sought me out and courted my spirit with his everlasting love and kindness. For me…..he is…the “Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the valleys” Songs of Solomon 2:1 In a world that describes love as a naked child with a bow and arrow, the Holy Spirit in me is how much he loves me.

In my Igbo tribe in Nigeria, during a wedding ceremony there is a procedure through which the wedding is consummated: The bride takes a horn of palm wine and looks for her husband who hides among the crowds. She keeps looking for him until she finally finds hm. Then she kneels down and offers him the palm wine, he drinks it and then they are married.

This is how we see marriage, but God sees his marriage to us differently. My lord Jesus Christ came to this world to look for me. He searched me out, he got on his knees and he washed my feet, he went on a cross and gave his life for me sealing his marriage to me. There is no greater love.

Many times we think of God in his awesome gloriousness, which he is, but can we also see him as the husband who will come after us, condescend to our level, wash our feet and even die for us? There is no greater love.

In life we tend to esteem the marriage to a man or woman greater than a marriage to God, but can we understand that all that our earthly marrying is good for is a preparation for an eternal one with our saviour? Brothers and sisters, there is no other love.

God redefining marriage

About a month ago, one of my cousins said to me “God is going to use our generation to redefine marriage”.

I believe that to be a bold and radical statement that was inspired by God. You see it is bold because our generation now is often viewed as the wayward, while our parents’ generation is seen as the chaste. But I believe that if we are honest with ourselves we will see that the notion of marriage as it is today is not what it should be. In extreme cases men want to be slave masters instead of husbands, while some wives want to be husbands instead of wives. All the while God wants us to understand that it is to him that we must be married firstly and only then will we know how to be in a marriage with another person. That is the only marriage upon which we can depend because I have seen promising marriages come to an end either because of death or human misunderstanding, but being married to God is eternal and soul satisfying.

And so the idea that God will use our generation to redefine marriage becomes an exciting concept that is filled with hope.

The only thing marriage is good for

Brothers and Sisters, marriage is only good for one thing – Preparing ourselves, our children and the world for an eternity with God. The sacrifice, the love, the patience, the encouraging, the sharing , and all of the things that spring from a proper marriage are practice for a greater glory that is to come.

No longer is marriage about satisfying our loneliness and having companionship –We do not need a marriage for these things because we have the Holy Spirit and the body of Christ, the Church.

You see when God created Adam he saw that Adam was alone, and God said “It is not good that man should be alone, I will make him a helper that is good for him” Genesis 2:18. Adam was alone and God created Eve to be his helper and companion.

Now compare this with what Jesus said to his disciples before he was taken “I will ask the Father and he will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. He is the Spirit who reveals the truth about God.” John 14:16

God created Eve to help Adam because Adam was alone, but Jesus sent another helper to us, the Holy Spirit who is with us forever. Now brothers and sisters we are never alone, and so companionship and help are no longer valid reasons for marriage because the Holy Spirit of God gives us all of that and more. The only thing a marriage is good for is that in it we can get a little taste of the love and oneness that we will have with the father in heaven.

We live at a time when many are contemplating the issues of who to take as wife and husband. For many time may seem to be the enemy, while for others indecision becomes a plague. Others may find themselves in a marriage that may not be all they had envisioned it to be. I want to encourage you all to embrace the only marriage that counts, the one with our Lord Jesus. Paul spoke of you when he said “I am jealous for you, just as God is, you are like a pure virgin whom I have promised in marriage to one man only, Christ himself.” 2nd Corinthians 11:2

May God redefine marriage in our generation; may we be men and women that say “I am married to Christ”, “God is my husband” even as he provides everything and everyone that we need to prepare ourselves for the glorious future that is to come. In the mighty name of Jesus I pray. Amen.