Text: 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Memory Verse:
“What is desired in a man is kindness, And a poor man is better than a liar.”
Proverbs 19:22
“We look into each other’s eyes and touch each other,” Billy Graham said of his 63-year marriage to Ruth. “It gets better as you get older.” Yes, marriage can be heaven on earth but it can also be hell on earth when it is gotten wrongly from the start.
Now, let’s consider this most important quality you should look for in a man. “What is desired in a man is kindness, And a poor man is better than a liar.” (Prov 19:22). The word kindness is from the Hebrew word ‘Hesed,’ which means grace. Grace is what you need in a man. A man who hasn’t encountered the grace of God through our Lord Jesus can’t give out grace. Grace brought us forgiveness and justified us in spite of our sins. Grace gives us the blessing we don’t deserve. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,” (Eph 2:8). We were saved by grace and are being sustained by grace.
Don’t marry a man who has not experienced God’s grace of salvation. This is what 2 Cor 6:14 means. “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers…” It is only the love that a man has experienced that he can also share (John 13:34; 1 John 3:16). We will always need God’s grace to get the favour we don’t deserve. Likewise, since you won’t always be perfect, you need a husband to show you that undeserved favour. Many marriages that started with pomp and pageantry soon crashed because the man had no grace to sustain it.
Friends, as a man, you can’t give what you don’t have neither can you, as a woman discern what you don’t know. Have you experienced God’s grace?
Prayer points
1. Father, let Your grace that brings salvation appear to all unmarried singles in Jesus name.
2. Father, deliver all Your daughters who are unequally yoked with unbelievers in Jesus name.
Today’s declarations
1. To marry a man without grace is to enter a marriage that will be sustained by labour rather than favour.
2. You need to experience grace to be able to discover a man with grace.
Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng