Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love. (Proverbs 5: 18-19)
Proverbs 5 reserves sexual relationships for marriage and warns men of the brokenness that results from infidelity. But these verses imply that wives also have a responsibility in maintaining a healthy sexual relationship. Husbands can’t be “intoxicated always” in a wife’s love if she is withholding that love. Our bodies are not our own; they belong first to God and then to our spouse. (1 Corinthians 6:18-7:4) Past sexual promiscuity or infidelity can burden a man and his marriage. Healing requires a contrite heart and God’s merciful intervention.
* Pray that the men in our lives will remain pure, abstinent before marriage and faithful to the wives of their youth.
* Pray that these men will view their bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit and will understand sex as a gift from God, to be enjoyed and not abused.
* Pray for healing from past promiscuity or infidelity, that the people of our church will allow God to purify them and that marriages will be restored where sexual sin or indiscretion has driven a wedge.
* Pray that married women in our church will honor their husbands’ need for sex and will not use sex to manipulate or punish their husbands. Pray that both husbands and wives will understand that their bodies belong to one another and will share the gift of sex willingly and regularly.
No comments:
Post a Comment