Provers 21:31 – A horse is prepared for the day of battle/ but victory comes from the Lord.
Well, considering the setting, I wanted to get horses into this wedding challenge, and this is the Proverb with horses. The Proverb isn’t that hard to understand: it is our place to prepare best we can for battle. But ultimately our preparation won’t be the primary cause behind success…that would be the Lord. We prepare for victory, but whether we are victorious is in God’s hands.
Now, don’t think that I’m implying that marriage is a battle between husband and wife.
Rather, marriage…family… will always be the ground upon which the Devil launches his main attack. A Christian marriage is the most nuanced portrayal of Christ and his Church… which itself is the first stage of God’s renewal of the world and defeat of evil. And so, Satan is big-time motivated to hijack and mar and tear holes in your marriage which is saying so much about the destiny of the universe.
So, though it might sound gloomy to state on the day of marriage, Dan and Nikole, expect that your marriage will be opposed. And so, prepare your horse for the day of battle. How exactly should you prepare to strengthen your marriage knowing that it will be contested, set upon? I have five “S’es”.
Develop a regimen of daily Scripture intake. The word of God is a word from heaven, a world that’s thick and clean and ALIVE. “The instruction of the LORD is perfect/ reviving the soul…the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart.” Prepare for battle, both of you, by being strengthened with those alive and enlivening words.
Instead of carrying around low-grade anxieties, get into a habit of supplication. Supplication is pouring out to God the worries – trifling and large – on your mind. Supplication is a type of prayer. While a part of your conversations with God should be planned, organized, perhaps even scripted – we’ll call those ‘prayers proper’ – there is also an ongoing, running conversation with God that includes a lot of asking, seeking, knocking in the moment.
Dan and Nikole, get into the habit of immediately turning over to God complicated, disquieting things. Anxiety enervates and weakens; faith fortifies.
How to prepare your home for success against the devil’s stratagems? Scripture…Supplication… and getting among a Society of other Christians who are taking God seriously, who are also attempting to be attentive to his word, who have a habit of communication with him that goes beyond formality and religion proper. There is such a thing as families who are attempting to be strong against the devil…but doing so away from the strength of Christian community. This never works.
Sabbath is another aspect of being prepared for the ongoing struggle. Six days shall you labor. And then one day you don’t labor. And let that day of rest truly be a day of rest – which probably doesn’t mean staring vacantly into a screen with a bowl of cereal in front of you. Rather: a little extra time in the psalms. Being refreshed in the fellowship of the saints. Extra good meals! The two of you sitting with a cup of coffee and just letting the conversation wander. Wandering around outside with no plans or lists or any other world-conquering materials. God the good shepherd leads us beside still waters. And he’ll do that every week, restoring your soul for the battle ahead.
Finally, Study the works of God. Psalm 111:2. Great are the works of the LORD/ studied by all who delight in them. And where are the works of God to be studied? And I’ll say everywhere you look, if you only have eyes to see. God has worked through processes, through agents, through systems – and so you’ll find and can study his work in untouched nature, in the craft and art and work of men, in the faces of image bearing humans. His work is recorded in Scripture, in history books, catalogued in museums, written in the stars above.
A home prepared for battle, a home that is strong, is one in which husband and wife, mom and dad, are in the habit of seeing God. And I don’t mean that they’re always reading the Bible or thinking hyper-spiritual thoughts. I mean they’re looking through the barns, trees, the history of the Peloponnesian War, sports, career, humor, the color yellow, dogs, trucks…everything…and relating everything to God. Seeing the hand of God in everything. Rather than their gaze stopping on these or any other objects, they have learned to look through them… unto God their Source.
We’re talking the difference between treating objects as an idol or an ikon. Idolatry you only see the thing. Ikons you look through and see the face of God. Idolatry makes you shallow and weak. Worship makes you strong.
Dan and Nikole – read Scripture. Pour out your hearts to God. Join a community of Christ-followers. Guard a weekly day of rest. Delight in all that God has done in heaven and earth. All these to the end of preparing the horse for the day of battle. Of fortifying your marriage and your home against the opposition of the evil one.
But if you so prepare yourself, here’s what I know: in 50 years you won’t look back and say, yes, I made all these strong moves and established good habits in our home and so, of course, that’s why we’re surrounded by blessings: children walking with God and happy and wise, grandchildren walking with God and happy and wise.
Rather, what you’ll then say is thanks be to God. The victory over our life is from the Lord. He takes our preparation that at best always will be mixed with a little foolishness and inconsistency and sloth… and in his mercy and grace makes it an ingredient to great blessing. Victory. You have been saved into Christ Jesus by grace. Once in Christ Jesus, you will continue to experience big and little salvations…in grace.
Dan and Nikole, be strong in Christ Jesus. But also, watch and see the bigger truth: how Christ Jesus will be strong in you.
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