Revive Your Marriage for Business SuccessSample

Unnecessary expectations create unforgiveness in marriage

We have so many bad examples of marriage that we must go back to the book of Genesis to see what marriage should be like. In Genesis 2:8, God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him,” and in Genesis 2:24, God said, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

From these two statements, we get the original definition of marriage straight from God. A wife is a help meet (companion) to her husband, a husband is to cleave (hold on) to his wife, and both should operate together on the same page.

Within God’s definition of marriage, there is nothing stating that the wife should cook or the husband should take out the trash. Man added all these extra definitions and many more to marriage; however, to have a successful marriage we must follow God’s original definition.

By following man’s definition, we add many unnecessary expectations to marriage, and expectations that go unmet will cause your heart to get sick – see Proverbs 13:12. Once your heart becomes sick, you will live in a state of unforgiveness with your spouse.

How can we expect to qualify as one of God’s business leaders if we are living with unforgiveness? Mark 11:23-26 shows us that unforgiveness stops our prayers from being answered. Without our prayers answered, we cannot receive direction for our businesses from God.

Therefore, it is critical that we remove all expectations from our spouses except what the Bible expects. The Bible simply instructs husbands to love their wives and wives to reverence their husbands - Ephesians 5:33, Colossians 3:18-19. To love someone is to serve them; to reverence someone is to submit to their leadership. In both cases, the husband and wife are in the position of serving the other person.

If you follow this principle of serving the other spouse, then you’ll have a successful marriage without unnecessary expectations.