Posted on 5 Apr 2015 by Joy Gan
This year, CERC is thankful to God for the 4 couples who are committing to each other in holy matrimony. We’re thankful not because marriage is about finding the ‘right’ one — but because God Himself is faithful, and that each couple, “for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part”, is choosing to serve each other under the Lordship of Christ, for the sake of building His church up.
Yesterday, Robin and I celebrated 16 years of being together under God at our CERC Good Friday evangelistic event. As a wife, I look back over those years, filled both with joy and tears, and am thankful for how God has been working in both of our lives for His glory. I can still recall praying in my room as a single person before I met Robin, asking God to help me to be content if I was to be single. However, if it was His will for me to be married, I prayed that it would be with someone whom I could serve the Lord with. This, God has graciously answered for 16 years, and by His grace, for many more years to come.
Marriage hasn’t been easy, as many couples will tell you…and yet there has been one thing that has been impressed on my heart over these past 16 years.
Marriage is about faithfulness. This world is obsessed about self-achievement, self-esteem, self- preservation, self-happiness…well, it’s all about self really. But the bible is completely different. It lifts our eyes upwards to our God who is always faithful, and who never fails us because He is forever faithful to the covenant He makes with His people. When we see marriage in Ephesians 5:22-33, it is a picture of Christ and His church, how Christ gives up his life sacrificially for His church in order to present them holy and without blemish on that last day, and how the church must submit to Christ’ Lordship in all things.
I love Robin even though many a time there has been great stress on our marriage, especially during our ministry years together. What I see in him, is what attracted me to him in the first place — his love for God and His Word, as well as his generous servant heart towards people. He’s always also had my godliness as priority, for instance, building me up in God’s Word, looking after the kids while I’m at a Christian conference, having honest conversations about the difficult things in life, and encouraging me in ministry.
What I see is not a perfect man, but one who loves Christ so much, that he sacrifices everything for Him who died and was raised to life. He is not a man without flaws, and yet he’ll admit just like everyone else, that he’s a sinner saved by grace. Because of God’s faithfulness, Robin seeks with all his heart to faithfully preach the gospel and build God’s church up. These past 10 years since we returned from Australia has been testimony to that.
Many times, people enter marriage thinking “how can I benefit from this” — but marriage is about serving the Lord together, and serving each other till the end…basically to be faithful. I am thankful to God for Robin’s faithfulness to God, His church and our marriage, and likewise, I rely on God’s strength to be faithful to Robin till death us do part, or till Christ returns, so that when that final day comes, I can say to the Lord — “Thank You for helping me be faithful in every way to this man You have placed in my life, for Your glory alone”.
In God’s kindness, the 3 children He has blessed us with – Ilona, Alethea and Latimer, belong to Christ, and so we’re more than family physically. It is Robin’s and my prayer, that as they see God at work in our marriage, that they will keep seeing Christ and His church, God’s faithfulness at work, and that one day, they will also join us in the work of the gospel — to be a faithful man and faithful women who endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
If we endure, we will also reign with him;
If we deny him, he also will deny us;
If we are faithless, he remains faithful
For he cannot deny himself.
