“…whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another…commits adultery.”  Matthew 19:9

Jayne wiped her eyes and stared into her coffee cup. “I just don’t like him anymore,” she whispered. “He’s not the knight in shining armor I thought he was, and Brad at work is so sweet…” Her friend nodded sympathetically. “I understand, and you deserve to be happy. God would want you to be happy, so I think He would agree with you getting a divorce.” That kind of “wisdom” is readily available when we’re struggling in our marriages. Our friends, and often family members, want us to be happy so they tell us what we want to hear. But a REAL friend will tell us what we NEED to hear. And Jesus is a real friend.

People in Jesus’ day had the same questions that we have now, and one of them was about divorce. If we’re fed up, can we bail out? If marriage was about our happiness, then divorce would be a reasonable option when Mr. or Mrs. Wonderful turned out to be Not-So-Much. But marriage is not about our happiness. In fact, the apostle Paul cautioned us to be careful because marriage brings a load of problems (1 Cor. 7:28). Marriage is another tool God uses to conform us to the image of Christ.  He uses our spouse’s rough edges like a rock tumbler to smooth our character issues and make us useful to Him. When we rush to divorce due to our own frustrations, we remove ourselves from God’s refining process and forfeit the depth of character He wants to build in us. Unless a spouse has cheated or put us in harm’s way, Jesus removes divorce from our list of options.

Final Thought:

Do you know the Bible’s teaching on divorce? This link can help: gotquestions.org/grounds-for-divorce.html

Prayer:

Father, I haven’t taken divorce and remarriage as seriously as you do, but I want to change my thinking. Help me build a foundation upon what you say, not what culture or my opinions say. I want to think like you think. In Jesus’ name, Amen.