Marriage Blessing
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Deborah P. Brunt
For the last
five years, the Fourth of July holiday has reminded me of . . . weddings. Our
older daughter Megan and her husband Logan married on July 2, 2005.
This year, a
dear friend named Amy is getting married on July 3. Amy called me long distance
to ask a wonderful thing. She wanted me to give a blessing to her and her groom
on their wedding day. I wrote the blessing personally for them - and then
realized this blessing can be invoked over every marriage.
It can also be
invoked over every Christian. There are specifics, of course, that apply to
husband and wife. But the scriptural foundation for this blessing is Romans
12:10, written to all who have entered covenant relationship with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ - all who make up his Bride:
"Be devoted
to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves."
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Love and honor
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 Some
blessings God intends for all of us to receive and to give and to receive and
to give, and to receive as we give. Love and honor rank high on the list.
You may be
single. You may be single again. You may be engaged to be married. You may have
lived with the same spouse for many years. You may be married again. Whatever
your marital status, you may feel very content, or you may not.
Regardless your
situation, I offer this blessing as a doorway, an open gate. You step through
the gate by receiving the blessing, whether your current circumstances seem to affirm
or to belie it. In so doing, in receiving by faith the challenge and the grace to
love and honor, you take the first step of moving from where you are to where
God intends you to be.
Don't think your
situation is hopeless. Don't think you've arrived. Every individual and every
marriage is a work in progress. A blessing received opens the way to take the
next "first step."
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A pre-blessing blessing
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I bless you
with not seeing this marriage blessing or any part of it as condemnation. I
bless you with experiencing strong encouragement and good hope as you read it. I
bless you with not attempting to use this blessing to force God's hand in
regard to matrimony. I bless you with recognizing the conviction of the Spirit any
place he "hits a nerve." I bless you with not ignoring that conviction, but
rather letting it become a springboard to sincere confession and genuine
repentance. I bless you with making every course correction needed to return to
and stay on the path of LIFE.
I bless you
with not using this blessing to try to force love and honor from others. That's
control and manipulation. Reject such tactics! Control and manipulation do not produce
love and honor, but rather kill them.
I bless you
with recognizing when relationships are unhealthy, when they are abusive. Separating
from abuse and requiring healthy boundaries do not show lack of
submission. Rather, these are first steps to restoration. If you are in an
unhealthy relationship, I bless you with having strong discernment from God to
know what to do and superabundant grace to do it, regardless who else does or
does not understand.
"And this is
my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of
insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and
blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that
comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God" (Phil. 1:9-11).
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Suggestions and permissions
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Blessings
carry a special weight when spoken aloud. After you've read the blessing and
received what God speaks to you through the written word, ask him if it needs
to be spoken aloud and, if so, to whom and by whom. Expect his
creativity! Follow through!
Blessings
carry a special weight when spoken personally. If possible, insert first names everywhere
you see the words "Husband" and "Wife."
To use the
blessing as part of a wedding ceremony, change the words "you have entered" in
the first and second paragraphs to "you are entering." The rest of the blessing
works as is. Be sure to use the couple's first names throughout!
The marriage blessing,
like everything published through keytruths.com, is copyrighted by the author. Show
me honor by obeying copyright laws. Specifically, you may download
and/or distribute copies for your wedding guests or for a marriage class or other educational
purposes, PROVIDED the blessing is printed/distributed without alteration,
including the copyright notice. Contact me to inquire about other uses.
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| For the hesitant |
If you're
single, I've asked God to hide treasure in this blessing especially for you. I've
asked him that you will mine the treasure fully - that you will have keen
discernment of what he is speaking to you, Spirit to spirit.
Whether you're
single or married, I pray even now that you will be honest about the thoughts
and emotions this blessing may stir up, that you will present all your thoughts
and emotions to the Spirit of God and that he will speak profoundly into your
spirit in a way that floods love and honor, grace and peace and LIFE into you -
spirit, soul and body.
And now, in
the name of the Father, Son and Spirit, may I bless you?
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MARRIAGE BLESSING
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 Husband and Wife,
you have entered a covenant relationship that God himself called into being on the
same day he created the human race. Genesis 1:27 declares, "God created human
beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female
he created them." Genesis 2:24 says, "For this reason a man will leave his
father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh."
Wife and Husband,
you have entered a covenant relationship that God delights to bless. Hear his word to you in Romans 12:10. "Be devoted to one another in love. Honor
one another above yourselves." Listen to the same exhortation in another
translation: "Love each other with
genuine affection, and take delight
in honoring each other" (NLT).
Husband and
Wife, I bless you with a marriage built on love
and honor. I bless each of you with
boundless capacity to receive the love and honor the LORD God is continually
pouring out on you. In Isaiah 43:4, the Lord says to you Husband and to you Wife,
"you are precious to me . . . I give you honor and love you." Romans 5 promises
you will be able to meet with perseverance, character and good hope whatever
life throws at you because God's love has been poured out into your hearts
through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to you (v. 5).
I bless each
of you with superabundant grace to love and honor the LORD - lavishly loving,
highly honoring the glorious One who made everything, who rules it all in
righteousness, who has stamped his image into your inmost being and who,
because of his love for you, has held back nothing
from you.
Wife and
Husband, I bless you with superabundant grace to walk in love and honor toward
each other. Moment by moment, year by year, be devoted to each other in love. Very
gladly spend and be spent for one another. Moment by moment, year by year, outdo
one another in showing honor. Submit to each other out of reverence for Christ.
Wife, Ephesians
5 calls for you to respect your husband and to submit to him "as to the Lord."
Titus 2 instructs you to love him.
Husband,
Ephesians 5 calls for you to love your wife "as Christ loved the church" and
"gave up his life for her." It challenges you to nourish and care for her as
for your own body. First Peter 3:7 teaches you to honor her as a fellow-heir of
the gift of life.
Husband and
Wife, I bless your marriage with being a multi-faceted picture of God's
relationship with his people. I bless you with not trying to paint the picture as you think it is supposed to look
or as your church culture may have told you it should look, but rather giving
God permission moment by moment to paint the picture through your marriage that
HE wants to paint. Paul described one facet of the picture: "For a husband is
the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church" (Eph. 5:23 NLT).
Genesis 2 describes another facet of the picture: "Then the Lord God said, 'It
is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for
him'" (Gen. 2:18 NLT).
Husband, be
blessed to walk in increasing revelation of what being "the head" means - and
what it does not mean. Fix your eyes on Jesus. See how he carried out his
headship, and follow him. "Walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and
gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (Eph. 5:2).
Wife, be
blessed to walk in increasing revelation of what being "a help" means - and
what it does not mean. The Hebrew word for helper, 'ezer, is used 21 times in the Old Testament. Every time, it
describes one who brings aid, reinforcement and rescue - one who proves himself
or herself strong in behalf of someone else. Sixteen times, the word 'ezer is used of God himself: "We wait
in hope for the Lord; he is our help
and our shield" (Ps. 33:20). "Our help
is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth" (Ps. 124:8). In
John's Gospel, Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as the Helper. Wife, walk by the
Spirit so that you will be the same kind of helper to your husband as the Holy
Spirit is to the church.
I bless you,
Husband, with not usurping the role of Jesus in your wife's life. I bless you, Wife,
with not usurping the role of the Holy Spirit in your husband's life. At the
same time, I bless you both with so cooperating with God in the picture he is
painting that each of you in very real ways reveals God to the other and to
everyone around. As each shows love and honor to the other, you are doing it to
God. As each shows love and honor to the other, you are reflecting the image of
God.
Wife and
Husband, I bless you with a marriage God accomplishes through you. I bless you
with the creativity of the Creator. I bless you with the faithfulness of the
Covenant-keeper and the freedom of the Deliverer. I bless you with restoring the
foundations of past generations and impacting the destiny of future ones. I
bless you with receiving the good things God provides you through others. I
bless you with the joy of showing love and honor to your children, to other
family members, to your friends and coworkers and to many, many others all over
the globe.
Husband and
Wife, I bless you with a lifetime of love and honor in the name of the glorious
Bridegroom who even now prepares to enjoy eternity with his glorious Bride.
. . . . . . .
©
2010 by Deborah P. Brunt, www.keytruths.com. Other writers, by copyright law,
may use up to 300 words in other published works without asking permission,
provided the author is given full credit. You may download and/or distribute
copies of any of these articles, for educational purposes, PROVIDED the pages
are distributed without alteration, including this copyright statement.
Unless
otherwise noted, Scriptures references are from The Holy Bible, Today's New International Version™ TNIV ® Copyright
© 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society ® All rights reserved worldwide.
Also quoted: Holy Bible, New Living
Translation ® (NLT), copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
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Related info
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Other articles by Deborah
Validation blessing: Don't
live an invalidated life. Don't pursue validation. You are accepted in
the Beloved. Receive God's stamp of approval already given you in
Christ. Be blessed with full validation because I AM validates you.
Spirit to spirit: I once
heard a man sing a tone. As he did, his guitar sitting in a stand began
vibrating with the same tone. Whatever note the man sang, his guitar
echoed. In a similar way, your spirit is designed to respond to the
Spirit of God.
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