Just like any relationship, marriage requires a lot of work — and even more reliance on God — to be successful. This past weekend at Alive Church, our Next Steps Pastor Steve Tanner offered some Life Hacks to help us see what we can do to foster this success and to dig deeper into God’s perspective on marriage.

In Ephesians 5:32, Paul calls marriage “an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.” God values marriage and has given it to us as an example of the closeness He wants with us as followers of Jesus.

The best thing we can do to experience marriage the way God has intended is to honor marriage, and there are three ways we can do that with our spouses:

Play Together

When children play together, they are friends. They help each other, solve problems together and ultimately, have fun. Your spouse should be your best friend and you should be theirs (see Proverbs 27:17). You’re doing life together — make sure you enjoy it!

Stay Together

With our country’s high divorce rate, we know that staying together is important. But staying together also means walking together through life. This means experiencing life’s joys and challenges together, being in agreement and mutual submission with one another (see Ephesians 5:21).

Pray Together

Remember that marriage involves you, your spouse and God, even if you don’t communicate with Him. Think of the difference it could make if you actively involve Him in your lives together! Going to God together shows Him that you want Him to participate in your joys, your difficulties and your questions (see Colossians 4:2and Romans 12:12).

This week, I challenge you to honor marriage by praying about marriage every day. Ask God to work and move in all marriages — your own, a family member’s, a friend’s, those in our community, our nation, and even our world — so that we all may see that marriage is made to be a representation of how He loves us.

In Christ,

Jeff