His Helper

-Woman’s Devotional Bible
Superglue works. Once two items are glued together, separation becomes a painful, sticky mess. Paper tears and fabric frays if you divide the two pieces that have melded the same-each inevitably retains fragments of the other. Think of two pieces of paper glued together-after they’ve been torn apart, each piece is ragged and weak. That’s why superglue comes with a label advising the consumer to use extreme caution when handling it.
We might think of marriage as something like God’s superglue because it weaves two lives intricately into one. After this blessed blending, attempts at separation cause irreparable damage. Hearts break, commitments crumble and families split. God’s intertwining of husband and wife extends to children, friends and families related to the union. God’s Word also provides a strong warning: “What God had joined together, let man not separate.”
When Ruth Bell was a teenager girl, she left her childhood home in China to attend schooling in Korea. Her idea of the future? She fully intended to be an old maid missionary in Tibet. However, she did give the thought of a husband some serious consideration. So she wrote the following list of particulars:
“If I marry:He must be so tall that when he is on his knees, as one has said, he reaches all the way to heaven. His shoulders must be broad enough to bear the burden of a family. His lips must be to kiss. Love must be so deep that is take its stand in Christ and so wide that it takes the whole lost world in. He must be active enough to save souls. He must be big enough to be gentle and great enough to be thoughtful. His arms must be strong enough to carry a little child.”
Ruth eventually found a man who fit her qualifications;she married evangelist Billy Graham. Ruth and Billy Graham realize that their marriage has endured the test of time not because they are perfect people, but because God is at the center of their relationship.
It takes supernatural empowerment and a determined effort on the part of both husband and wife to keep the bond of marriage strong. Only through God’s strength can couples remain “superglued” together. As Solomon wisely said, “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” -Ecclesiastes 4:12 “A good marriage is the union of two forgivers.” -Ruth Graham
Genesis 2:19-25
19So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one.
20He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.
21So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening.
22Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.
23“At last!” the man exclaimed.
“This one is bone from my bone,
and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called ‘woman,’
because she was taken from ‘man.’”
24This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.
25Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.
1 Corinthians 7:10-16
10But for those who are married, I have a command that comes not from me, but from the Lord. A wife must not leave her husband.
11But if she does leave him, let her remain single or else be reconciled to him. And the husband must not leave his wife.
12Now, I will speak to the rest of you, though I do not have a direct command from the Lord. If a Christian man has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to continue living with him, he must not leave her.
13And if a Christian woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to continue living with her, she must not leave him.
14For the Christian wife brings holiness to her marriage, and the Christian husband brings holiness to his marriage. Otherwise, your children would not be holy, but now they are holy.
15(But if the husband or wife who isn’t a believer insists on leaving, let them go. In such cases the Christian husband or wife is no longer bound to the other, for God has called you to live in peace.)
16Don’t you wives realize that your husbands might be saved because of you? And don’t you husbands realize that your wives might be saved because of you?
Ephesians 5:21-33
21And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
23For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church.
24As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.
25For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her
26to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. 27He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.
28In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.
30And we are members of his body.
31As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”
32This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.
33So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.