Rick Warren (July-25-2023) Daily Devotional: Marriage Is Meant for Connection
“In God’s plan men and women need each other.” - 1 Corinthians 11:11 (TLB)
Marriage doesn’t solve your problems. Marriage does not create your problems. Marriage reveals your problems. It simply magnifies what was already a problem when you were living as a single adult.
So if marriage doesn’t solve your problems, what does marriage do? Why did God design marriage in the first place?
God created marriage for the connection of men and women.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11:11, “In God’s plan men and women need each other” (TLB).
Whether or not you get married, if you’re a woman, you need men in your life; if you’re a man, you need women in your life. Why? Because nobody holds the full image of God. Women get part of it and men get part of it, and we need each other. God wired us this way. God thought up gender, sex, and marriage. What a God!
Did you ever wonder why God made man first and then woman a little bit later? Why didn’t he make them both at the same time?
I think he did it for Adam’s benefit. I think he wanted Adam to realize how much he needed women in his life.
Genesis 2:18 says, “It isn’t good for man to be alone; I will make a companion for him” (TLB).
You need companions in all different areas of your life. But marriage is a particularly significant way to provide companionship; it’s in a relational class all by itself.
Here’s what Jesus had to say about it: “‘God made them male and female’ from the beginning of creation. ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together” (Mark 10:6-9 NLT).
This passage makes three major points about marriage:
1. Marriage is God’s plan. It’s not a tradition you can just throw out.
2. Marriage is between a man and a woman. Their body parts fit together for a purpose—the creation of everybody else.
3. Marriage is designed to be permanent. That doesn’t always happen. God is always ready and willing to forgive you when you don’t live up to his standards. But marriage is meant to be for life.
Do you realize how radical those three statements are? Even if many people don’t believe them, they’re still the truth!
The reality of life today is that many people live outside of this marriage ideal. But just because we live in the real, not necessarily the ideal, doesn’t mean we get to say the ideal doesn’t exist.
The ideal is still the way God designed marriage. And when you choose to live inside of that design, you’ll reap the benefits of connection that God intended marriage to provide.
Talk It Over
- Why is it important for a single person to understand the purpose of marriage?
- How have Christians tried to distort the three points about marriage from Mark 10:6-9?
- Why do you think marriage reveals problems in individuals? When you’re in a relationship, what can you do about those flaws that marriage reveals?
