Believe it or not, there is a way to have an easy marriage.
I admit, easy is a relative word; what one considers easy another may call difficult. So, let’s take Jesus’ perspective. He said that His yoke is easy.
A word that appears often in Scripture is anoint. To anoint something is essentially to apply oil to it, making it work smoothly, making it easy.
Oil is a symbol representing the Holy Spirit. The Spirit’s presence, His involvement, brings an anointing, making easy whatever it is in which He’s involved. The Spirit is given to reside in the heart of every believer in Jesus; that’s what Jesus meant when He said His yoke is easy. Submitting one’s life to Jesus is taking on His yoke, receiving His Spirit. Having the Holy Spirit is the greatest blessing we can receive on this earth. In fact, the Bible says He’s a deposit of our life to come in eternity.
This is yet another principle that can be applied to marriage. God never intended marriage to be carried on without His involvement. Look what happened when Adam and Eve chose their own path instead of His in the garden.
Now that we have, in our present age, the Holy Spirit always with us – more precisely, in us – we never have to be without Him, His presence, His influence, His involvement.
Yet Paul, writing to believers in Galatia who already had the Spirit within them, urged them to walk (or live) according to the Spirit’s guidance, because they still had the option of not being in step with Him.
Every married couple who are in Christ also have the option of being in step or out of step with the Holy Spirit in every part of their relationship.
Dancing can be difficult, two dance partners being in step with each other; if one gets out of step, it messes up the dance. But what if they had an instructor guiding them in every step, making the dance as simple as following his lead. That’s what the Holy Spirit is for us married couples, our divine Instructor in our marriage dance. So, the dance becomes a matter of following His lead. Marriage becomes a matter of walking according to the Spirit, being in step with Him.
The most important relationship in my marriage isn’t the one between my wife and me; it’s the one she and I have with God. When that relationship is strong, when she and I both are in step with Him, our marriage becomes a beautiful dance.
That’s when marriage is easy.