Kingdom Marriage Devotional

By Tony Evans

This 90-day devotional is a perfect way for kingdom couples to start the day together remembering the principles they are learning in the Kingdom Marriage book, DVD Video Curriculum, or Participant’s Guide. Couples will find daily inspiration to step together into the full role God has for them so they begin to fulfill God’s design and purpose for their marriage. With practical insights and powerful stories, Tony Evans inspires and instructs couples so they discover the hope, challenge, and guidance God’s Word provides for their journey together.

Kingdom Marriage Devotional shows couples that the key to influencing our society and the world with lasting impact is found in solidifying Biblical marriage the way God intended. It starts with both wife and husband being nurtured in the Lord’s presence and then reflecting His image within the roles and responsibilities of their union. Kingdom Marriage Devotional and other Kingdom Marriage products are part of an entire line of Kingdom products by Tony Evans, including Kingdom Man, Kingdom Woman, Raising Kingdom Kids, and the Kingdom Quest strategy guides for kids and teens.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
• Release date: Oct 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781624059940

Tony Evans

Dr. Tony Evans is founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative, and author of The Power of God’s Names, Victory in Spiritual Warfare, and many other books. Dr. Evans is the first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, as well as the first African American to author both a study Bible and full Bible commentary. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on more than 2,000 US outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Learn more at TonyEvans.org.

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INTRODUCTION

Passion matters and happiness is great, but rather than being the purpose for marriage, they are benefits. Marriage exists to glorify God by expanding His rule and reach. It uniquely reflects His image like nothing else. When you pursue God’s purpose as a couple, then everything else you value in life—such as happiness, love, and satisfaction—will fall into place.

—Tony Evans, Kingdom Marriage

AS A KINGDOM COUPLE you are called to view marriage through God’s lens. Tony Evans writes that kingdom husbands and wives share a powerful purpose: to function in unison under divine authority in order to replicate God’s image and expand His rule in the world through both their individual and joint callings.

What a privilege and a challenge.

Based on the truths found in Tony Evans’s powerful book Kingdom Marriage, this devotional will give you strength and encouragement to apply your faith throughout the ups and downs of life together.

Take a daily journey together along the path of biblical marriage. The inspiration provided in each of these ninety devotions will equip you to more fully grow together to live for God’s kingdom.

1

KINGDOM COUPLES HONOR EACH OTHER

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

—Romans 12:10,

ESV

YEARS AGO IN KOREA, the sight of a young man riding a white pony while carrying a goose meant only one thing. He was heading to his bride’s house to present the goose to her mother. The goose was symbolic of his pledge of faithfulness, since wild geese mate for life. With it, the hopeful groom honored his potential future family and his beloved.

Grand gestures have been part and parcel of great love stories throughout history. Not one, though, is quite like that of young Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Ascending the throne at the tender age of eighteen, Victoria married her prince, and together they had nine children and enormous influence on the British Empire and the world.

Most impressive about the strength and love of this marriage is what followed Albert’s untimely death, when the queen showed him the greatest honor any wife could give. Many thought her grief was excessive, but Victoria’s love for Albert demanded nothing less. Still young when widowed, she chose to remain in mourning for the loss of the love of her life. For four decades, Queen Victoria clothed herself daily in black, staying true to the memory of her marriage. There is no greater testament to a spouse’s love than what this queen unwaveringly gave to her prince.

As followers of the One True King over all, we should seek to honor each other no less, to love each other no less, and to expand God’s dominion and rule no less through all that we do in our marriage.

APPLICATION

How do you honor your spouse?

What is one way you’d like your spouse to show love to you?

How might your marriage be a reflection of God’s love?

PRAYER

Father, we thank You for the blessing of our marriage. Teach us to honor each other in deeper ways. Amen.

2

KINGDOM COUPLES CHOOSE TRUTH

Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.

—Winston Churchill

SOME THINGS JUST MAKE SENSE. If it’s raining, you go inside. If the gas gauge reads nearly empty, it’s time to fill up. Logical people might contend that these simple examples of reason illustrate commonsense decision making and interpretation of truth. So what if you’re not happy in your marriage? Reason might tell you that it’s time to call it quits. After all, you deserve happiness, right?

A national study examined marriages that were struggling; some couples divorced while others stayed married. The data collected over five years confounded conventional wisdom. Most of the couples who stayed together over time became happier than those who gained their freedom through divorce and even those who remarried. The couples who stayed together opted to believe God’s truth instead of the world-sanctioned reasonable response to seek divorce.[1]

Family, church, and civil government were designed to operate on a standard of absolute truth. Truth is fundamentally God-based knowledge. In the Garden of Eden, for example, Adam and Eve received the revealed Word of God instructing them that they could eat freely from any tree, except from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In eating that forbidden fruit, the first couple removed themselves and humanity from the absolute nature of God’s command, ushering human reason into their future equations. God’s truth was plain in those first days of perfect relationship between God and man, but now we must operate through a process of reasoning. As a result, today you must be careful always to place your natural reasoning process as a couple underneath the umbrella of absolute truth. As a kingdom couple you can choose what is truthful or right over what seems reasonable.

APPLICATION

How have you allowed reason to pull you from God?

How might doing that have affected your marriage?

In what way should reason and truth function in your relationship?

PRAYER

God, You are truth, and everything in life is subject to Your Word. Help us to filter everything we hear, think, and say through Your absolute truth. Amen.

3

KINGDOM COUPLES GIVE GOD GLORY

We ascribe to [God]. We don’t add to Him.

—John Piper, The Dawning of Indestructible Joy

HER HUSBAND WAS AT IT AGAIN. There was King David, whirling and leaping at the head of a celebratory procession, his rich royal garments replaced by a linen robe and ephod. It was a spectacle completely inappropriate for the king of Israel, and his wife Michal was disgusted. David danced with abandon, oblivious to the indignity of the display. She would give him a piece of her mind when he got home.

Michal couldn’t grasp that for David it was all about submitting himself fully to God’s rule even over his own kingship. God’s rule ranked above David’s own reputation. She just couldn’t see past her pride to join him in giving glory to the Most High. And Michal paid a price for denying God’s proper position; she remained barren for the rest of her life (2 Samuel 6:16-23).

We also have a choice. Whether we choose to live our lives giving God glory is irrelevant to that glory. God’s glory exists intrinsically in Himself. Our behavior or attitudes can’t affect the amount of glory God has; His glory is a natural offshoot of who He is. However how much we experience and access God’s glory in our lives, marriages, and homes is determined by how well we submit ourselves to His rule. When we align ourselves under God, we know the abundant life and abundant marriage Christ came to secure on our behalf (John 10:10).

The primary way to bring God glory is through surrender to His sovereign rule over every area of our lives. When we base our marriages on His kingdom agenda, we freely enjoy God’s hand of blessing and His promise to work all things together for good (Romans 8:28).

APPLICATION

How would added surrender to God’s rule affect your marriage?

Today, what one thing could you as a couple allow God to rule?

What would the result be?

PRAYER

Lord, we want to bring glory to You. Teach us what we can do to submit more fully to Your rule in our lives. Amen.

4

KINGDOM COUPLES EMBRACE COVENANT

Love . . . bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

—1 Corinthians 13:4, 7

MARRIAGE HAS TAKEN ON a new hue in our culture. While Californian Glenn Scotty Wolfe had the distinction of twenty-nine marriages during his lifetime,[1] many couples see no reason to tie the knot at all. Only about 40 percent of those surveyed in a 2010 study by Pew Research Center saw cohabitation as a negative for society, and almost the same percentage contended that marriage itself has become obsolete.[2] Even so, this centerpiece of family that God designed for our good remains the best place for individuals to realize the destiny God has for them, even as society casts its ballot on whether the institution is still valid.

Marriages today are crumbling at a high rate—not because we no longer get along, but because we have lost sight of the blessing tied to a biblical marriage. Marriage is not merely a social contract; it is a sacred covenant. It is not simply a means of looking for love, happiness, and fulfillment. These things are important. In fact, they are critical. However, they are just not the most important, or the most critical. Yet because we have made second things first, as important as second things are, we are having trouble living out either. When God’s purpose and principles for marriage are undermined, then His image becomes distorted and our dominion authority erodes.

Kingdom couples must view marriage through God’s kingdom lens. Marriage is a covenantal union designed by God in order to strengthen the capacity of each partner to carry out His plan in their lives.

APPLICATION

What does the word covenant mean to your relationship?

Why does God still place such a high value on marriage?

How can you as a couple protect your marriage?

PRAYER

Father, thank You for the gift You have given us in marriage. Please help us to glorify You through this lifelong covenant. Amen.

5

KINGDOM COUPLES SHARE A GOAL

He said

Reviews for Kingdom Marriage Devotional

[Daniel Verkoey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My wife and I read through this book one chapter at a time and loved it! We've tried to read several marriage books and haven't really found a great one until now. This book was done so well! It was convicting, asking some serious questions that get to the heart of the matter. It makes you think and discuss. The short prayers at the end of each chapter felt so Spirit led!
Definitely a must read!