Page 23 - Family Life Student Textbook

Study Section 4: Why is Marriage so Difficult?

4.1 Connect

If God created us to need and enjoy this wonderful intimacy between husband-and-wife, why is
marriage so difficult? Why is it so hard to form a new marital bond? Why is it so difficult for
each of us to change? Why does it not come naturally for us to serve the other person and to
make them happy?

Marriage must be a tough process. After all, almost 50% of them end in divorce. It really must take a lot of
hard work to make a marriage that lasts for a lifetime. And it does. Let’s see how…

4.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to understand what we are up against in trying to fulfill God’s
prescription for marriage.

2. The student should be able to explain how couples can deal with these hindrances in a godly
way.

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4.3 Why is Marriage so Difficult?

When we were preparing for marriage the other person seemed so perfect and wonderful! We
were head-over-heels in love with them. We longed to make them happy. We had the best
intentions. Then why did marriage become so difficult?

We must learn that marriage is not lived on a romantic balcony. Rather it is lived on a battlefield.
Our mate is not our enemy. Satan is our enemy and as husband and wife we must fight him together as a
unified team. As husband and wife we must stand and fight together, trusting God for His supernatural
strength, in order to resist Satan.

Ecclesiastes 4:12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of
three strands is not quickly broken.

Satan’s forces work hard to hinder and break up marriages. Sin in the Garden of Eden had an immediate
effect upon marriage. God’s curse describes the ongoing battle now present within marriage.

Genesis 3:14–16 “So the LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed
are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you
will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the
woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will
strike his heel.’ To the woman he said, ‘I will make your pains in childbearing very
severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your
husband, and he will rule over you.’”

3 Much of the content in this lesson comes from Denny Rainey’s material for “Weekend to Remember”.
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