Have you ever known of a married couple that has been married for a long time that “seems” to have a great marriage and then you find out they’re getting a divorce? It can be so disappointing and you can go through such a time of disillusionment because you think, “If they can’t make it through the rest of their lives without divorcing, what hope do we have?”

Someone once said, “The problem of getting great things from God is being able to hold on for the last half hour.” What is it about finishing well that is so difficult? It seems we have the determination and spirit of perseverance to do things as we should to keep “running the race” well for such a prolonged period of time, but when the finish line is in sight, all too often we get distracted and veer off in another direction.

We want to encourage you in this Marriage Message to “FINISH WELL” in living out your marriage being faithful to your spouse to the end of your physical days on this earth. Don’t allow “that which glitters” or seems to look better than what you have pull you away from doing what is right in the eyes of God-being a person of good character your whole life long.

Conduct yourself in your marriage in such a way that not only do YOU know you are living true to your promises but you are also a living example to those around you of how a person of integrity conducts their life. O how this world needs people who are willing to live exemplary lives that will inspire others also!

The Bible says, “See to it that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ IF WE HOLD FIRMLY TILL THE END THE CONFIDENCE WE HAD AT FIRST” (Hebrews 3:12-15).

It also says in the scriptures, “Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9).

We need to continue to be promise keepers up through the end. Christ was faithful to the end of His earthly life. He was able to have confidence in saying, “It is finished” because it was. He had completed everything He needed to accomplish here on earth through to the end. That is why we can have confidence in following His example.

The Apostle Paul said, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:6-7).

Some of you feel like you are “being poured out like a drink offering” and want to just give in to the temptation of giving up “the good fight” like others are doing around you. Life is hard —and it seems unfair (at least on this side of heaven). It’s only natural to want to give in when you see so many around you who haven’t been faithful enjoying life more than you are and yet you’ve remained steadfast in doing what is right.

We see in the Bible that Asaph struggled with this same temptation in Psalm 73. He saw everyone else prospering but him. Others who were “pure in heart” were experiencing God’s blessings and even those who were evil were prospering. He just didn’t understand it and was tempted to give in to temptation as if he were figuring, “what’s the use to staying faithful? I might as well give in and at least enjoy SOME of life like they’re doing.”

In this Psalm he said, “But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills.”

He goes on to talk of their pride and arrogance, which he obviously had a difficult time understanding, because it would seem that God should smite them instead of allowing them to prosper.

He goes on to say, “Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning.” You can sense his struggle in remaining faithful to God’s principles when he was suffering and others who weren’t doing what is right were “seeming” to be doing quite well.

But then he goes on in his reasoning and comes to this insight, “When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me TILL I ENTERED THE SANCTUARY OF GOD; then I understood their final destiny.” What we see in all of this is that sometimes we just can’t make sense of why God allows some things to happen. But just as Asaph did, we need to enter “the sanctuary of God” — a place where we allow God to be God — a place where we don’t get tripped up over the fact that we can’t figure everything out.

There are some things that human beings will never be able to figure out. We aren’t God. We can’t comprehend His bigger plan. On those things, we need to be faithful to the end to do what God has told us to do being confident that He will straighten it all out in the frame of eternity.

As the scriptures say, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” —which means, we aren’t going to figure everything out that the Lord allows.

But none-the-less, we have to trust Him. The Bible also says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight”(Proverbs 3:5-6).

It comes down to realizing what Asaph came to know when he said, “But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.” We need to keep going back to the Lord —trusting His heart and His plan even when we don’t understand it.

We have to hold on and realize that there is more to life than what appears on the surface. God wants to work in you and through you to do His good will and display His power and attributes to those around you that need to see faithfulness in action. That’s what living out the gospel with and without words is all about. It’s trusting God, holding on, and FINISHING WELL!

And that pertains especially to marriage because throughout the scriptures we can see that God has appointed marriage to be a living picture of Christ’s love for the church. The enemy of our faith knows that and works all the harder to mess that picture up. We need to remain faithful and honor our spouse in all the ways in which we live with them, living out the principles for loving as God tells us to do until we’re parted by death so we will FINISH WELL—to the glory of God!

Our love and prayers are with you as together we strive to love each other as Christ loves the Church and gave up Himself for her sacrificially.

Steve and Cindy Wright

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