Taking the First Step

For a marriage to be as God designed it, both partners need to be right with Him. He created marriage in part because He saw that it wasn’t good for man to be alone.

Is your marriage a good one? If there are serious, unresolved problems, is it because you have been trying to make it on your own? If so, let me urge you to turn back to your Creator and Savior. Admit that you’ve made a mess of things and that you can’t live without Him. Turn from your pride and stubborn independence. Confess your wrongs to God. Ask Him to help you build into your marriage the 10 biblical building blocks we’ve named in this booklet. And let your spouse know what you have done—even if you have to be broken in spirit to start anew.

If you’re not a child of God, the first step is to know what Christ did for you. The starting place for a healthy marriage experience begins with your own personal relationship to Him. To know His forgiveness, you need to agree with Him about your sin, admit that you can’t save yourself, and then believe that Christ died in your place to take the penalty for your sin and then rose from the dead to prove it. Read the wonderful promise of John 3:16 and claim it for yourself:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.