Faithfully Devoted
DAY 1 | Faithfully Devoted
HOW TO USE THIS DEVOTIONAL
IF YOU’RE MARRIED
As we close this series, complete these final devotionals together when possible. Read the Scripture, talk honestly, and pray together.
This week is about covenant commitment, first with God and then with your spouse.
As you work through each day, resist the temptation to evaluate whether your spouse is keeping their commitments. Instead ask:
“Am I faithfully living out mine?”
Some couples may recognize areas where their covenant has been wounded by sin, betrayal, neglect, or broken trust. Don't feel pressure to resolve years of pain in one devotional. Repentance, forgiveness, rebuilding trust, counseling, and healing can take time.
The goal this week is to honestly examine where you are, look again to Christ, and intentionally renew your commitment to God and one another.
IF YOU’RE SINGLE
This week is for you too.
Before we ever talk about covenant commitment to a spouse, we must talk about covenant commitment to God.
Use these final days to examine what you worship, what you pursue, and what has your deepest devotion.
If you desire marriage in the future, this week will also challenge you to consider the commitments you are making now that will shape the kind of spouse you eventually become.
READ
Deuteronomy 5:6–21; Matthew 22:34–40
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
Matthew 22:37
THE TRUTH
Throughout this series, we have spent a lot of time talking about marriage.
We began with the roles God established. We talked about obedience, fruitfulness, intimate connection, protecting against lust, and the characteristics of Jesus that should increasingly shape the way husbands and wives love one another.
But as we close the series, we need to return to something underneath all of it.
Covenant.
The biblical story is filled with covenant relationships.
God enters into covenant with His people, and again and again we see the same heartbreaking pattern: God remains faithful while His people wander.
They worship other gods.
They live for other gods.
They pursue other gods.
Eventually, Scripture even uses the language of adultery to describe Israel's spiritual unfaithfulness because they have given to someone else the devotion that belonged to God.
That helps us understand why the Ten Commandments begin where they do:
“Do not have other gods besides Me.”
Before God addresses murder, adultery, stealing, lying, or coveting, He establishes the relationship that should order everything else.
God first.
Jesus later summarizes the commandments with two statements:
Love God.
Love others.
And for the purpose of what we have been learning throughout this series, we can bring that principle directly into marriage:
Love God. Love Your Spouse.
The order matters.
Our covenant with our spouse was never intended to replace our devotion to God. Our spouse cannot carry the weight of being our god. They cannot provide our ultimate identity, satisfy every desire, heal every wound, or become the source of everything our heart needs.
We love our spouse best when our deepest devotion belongs to Christ.
That means a healthy marriage isn't simply two people trying harder to love one another.
It is two people continually learning to put God first and allowing their relationship with Him to shape the way they love each other.
Faithful devotion to our spouse begins with faithful devotion to God.
REFLECT
Think honestly about the way you are currently living.
What receives your greatest attention, affection, energy, and pursuit?
Is there anything good that has quietly moved into a place of importance that should belong to God alone?
If someone examined your schedule, spending, conversations, thoughts, and priorities, what might they conclude you are living for?
A HAPPILY MARRIED REMINDER
It is possible to make your marriage an idol too.
Your spouse was never meant to take God's place.
If your peace depends entirely upon your spouse's approval, if your identity rises and falls with the condition of your marriage, or if you expect another human being to satisfy needs that ultimately belong before God, you are placing a burden on your spouse they were never designed to carry.
The goal isn't: Spouse first.
It is: God first.
And because God is first, we learn to faithfully love, serve, protect, care for, provide for, pursue, and remain devoted to our spouse.
TOGETHER OR INDIVIDUALLY
IF YOU’RE MARRIED
Talk honestly about this question:
“What has been competing for first place in our lives?”
Maybe it's work.
Children.
Money.
Success.
Sports.
Phones.
Entertainment.
Extended family.
The house.
Your plans for the future.
Or even your marriage itself.
Then ask:
“What would it look like for us to intentionally put God first in this season?”
Don't settle for a vague answer like, “We need to do better.”
Choose something practical.
Maybe you begin praying together consistently.
Maybe worship needs to become a priority again.
Maybe you need to open Scripture together.
Maybe a schedule needs to change.
Maybe something receiving too much of your attention needs to receive less.
The goal isn't simply to add another religious activity to your calendar.
It is to reorder your devotion.
IF YOU’RE SINGLE
Ask yourself:
“What am I building my life around?”
It is easy to imagine that marriage will eventually give life greater purpose, stability, or fulfillment.
But a spouse cannot become the foundation of a life that was designed to be built upon Christ.
If marriage is in your future, one of the greatest things you can bring into that covenant is a heart that has already learned:
God comes first.
Practice that devotion now.
FROM THE MARRIAGE CREED
“I will be faithful to my spouse by first remaining faithful to Christ. In my pursuit of Him I will be able to strengthen my devotion to my spouse. I understand that only my devotion to Christ can combat the lies, deception and mistrust the enemy uses to destroy my marriage.”
The final commitment of our Marriage Creed actually brings us back to the foundation of every other commitment.
First remaining faithful to Christ.
We cannot consistently love like Jesus without remaining close to Jesus.
We cannot continually serve like Him, forgive like Him, protect like Him, care like Him, or remain faithfully devoted like Him through our own strength.
Our marriage needs more than our determination.
We need Christ.
RESPOND
In this week's message, we asked four questions:
Who or what am I worshiping?
Who or what am I living for?
Who or what am I pursuing?
Who or what am I putting before God or before my spouse?
Don't rush through those questions.
If something comes to mind, don't immediately defend it because it is a good thing.
Children are good.
Work is good.
Friendships are good.
Success can be good.
Marriage is good.
But even good things become disordered when we give them a place God never intended them to occupy.
Identify one practical way you can reorder your priorities today.
Today I will:
PRAY
Father, You alone deserve first place in our lives.
Forgive us for the ways we allow other people, desires, responsibilities, possessions, and pursuits to compete with our devotion to You.
Show us what we are worshiping.
Show us what we are living for.
Show us what we are pursuing.
And show us anything we have placed before You.
Teach us to love You with all our heart, soul, and mind.
For husbands and wives, help them love one another from a heart that is first faithfully devoted to You. Keep them from expecting their spouse to provide what only You can give.
Where priorities have become disordered, reorder them.
Where devotion has weakened, renew it.
Where covenant has been broken, lead us toward repentance and restoration.
For those who are single, establish their identity and devotion firmly in Christ. If marriage is part of their future, prepare them now to enter that covenant already knowing who must always remain first.
Teach us to say with both our words and our lives:
God first.
And from that devotion, teach us to faithfully love the people You have entrusted to us.
Amen.