Establishing Your Purposes

If you were to ask a group of married couples the question, “How many of you need counseling?” you might see only a few hands because counseling is considered a negative thing; something you do when you’re in trouble. But if you were to ask, “How many of you want to see your purposes established?” every hand would go up.

Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.

Proverbs 15:22

Here is a nugget for you: Counseling for your marriage is a god thing! Don’t wait until it needs to be an intense, heated, expensive, one-on-one session. Invest in your marriage by having purposeful fellowship with other liked-minded Christian couples.

Interestingly, even unsaved people say things like, “No I can’t go today, I have to see my shrink.” They’re not ashamed of going to get counseling because it’s not about foolish pride; it’s about getting help. Likewise, Christians need to say, “No I can’t go today, I’m meeting with some couples from my marriage group at church.” Establishing our purposes involves admitting I’m tired of my life being so disappointing or I want to keep my life from being disappointing and therefore I need to get counseling. Jesus is the ultimate counselor and He gives great one on one sessions, but the Bible says we need a multitude of counselors. We need to be around godly people that can speak into our lives. We need as much counseling as we can get!

As married couples it’s easy to think “We’re grown. We got this!” and proceed to make major decisions without counsel that damage our relationships. If we want our purposes established, we will need a multitude of counselors and counseling sessions. Don’t deceive yourself into believing that a small dose of God’s word on Sunday morning is going to counter all the attacks that are coming against your marriage. Don’t pride yourself into believing that your marriage is doing okay and you don’t need counseling. It’s by divine design that we have to go in to God’s word, deep and often for counsel, if we want to see our purposes established in our marriages and in our homes.

For more on this topic download "M.P.G.: Getting the Most Out of Your Marriage".