Marriage is a covenant relationship between a man, a woman, and God.

In reality, the most important part of the covenant relationship is your relationship with God. Without a relationship with God, marriage can never be fully what it was intended to be.

Think of your relationship with God as a way to gauge the relationship you have with your spouse. As you and your spouse grow closer in your relationship to God you will naturally grow in your relationship with each other and will become closer while making your marriage stronger.

God designed marriage to be a blessing to those who follow His intended design for marriage.

As each spouse fulfills their God-given roles as husband and wife, their marriage is more blessed and strengthened. The more the husband becomes like Christ, the more he is able to treat his bride as Christ does His church.  The husband becomes more loving in action and will treat his bride in a more nourishing and cherished way.

As he loves his bride like Christ loves His church, his bride responds as the church should towards Christ. She gives him the honor and respect that a God-fearing husband is worthy of.

Likewise, as a wife grows closer to God she treats her husband with more respect, honor, and authority. She is called to do these things for her husband as unto the Lord. It is as if she is doing these things to and for the Lord when she does them to her husband.

The Lord is the one she is really doing it for and the husband is the beneficiary of these actions. Also, when she acts in a respectful and honoring way towards her husband, he is much more willing and even desiring to show her the love that she deserves.

With each person in the marriage growing closer towards God, they learn how to walk in the roles He designed for them.

A person grows closer to God as they learn how to glorify Him and apply what they learn from reading the Bible. Here is a short list of the ways a person can glorify the Lord.

1. Repent and believe that Jesus Christ is Lord
2. Love God
3. Love others as yourself
4. Read the Bible daily
5. Pray daily
6. Share the gospel with unbelievers

As you do these things, your relationship with the Lord will grow. As your relationship with the Lord grows, so will your relationship with your spouse. The opposite is also true. The farther your relationship is from the Lord, the farther away you are in relation to your spouse. The relationship with your spouse is a direct reflection of the relationship you have with God.