Craig & Amy Groeschel’s From This Day ForwardSample

“Stay Pure” People spend months planning for their wedding but sometimes neglect to make marriage planning a priority. We may attend a premarital class or talk with the minister who performs the wedding, but we often don’t really open up about what issues we may be bringing into the relationship. We may not even be fully aware of how our habitual thoughts and behaviors could threaten our unity. Because the marriage bed is God’s standard for sexual intimacy, it’s also the place that suffers most when sexual baggage is brought into a relationship. Whether it’s from a promiscuous past, sexually-charged music, racy novels, unhealed wounds from abuse, or exposure to pornography — any source of sexual stimulation outside the context of your marriage is a dangerous threat. No matter how harmless you’ve convinced yourself it is, if you’re keeping it a secret from your spouse, you’re closing the door to intimacy and opening the door to adultery. Are you willing to build a barrier together to keep those threats out? Are you willing to limit your freedoms to keep you strong against temptation? Are you willing to be transparent with your schedule, your conversations, or your online interactions? Do this when you’re strong to protect yourself when you’re weak. Ask God to show you your weaknesses — then shore them up. Will lines be crossed? Will failures happen? Almost certainly. Deal with issues as they arise. Ask God to forgive you. Ask your spouse to forgive you. But fight to stay pure. Purity matters. Let’s pray together: Jesus, You paid such a high price to make us clean and new. Only You can make us pure in Your sight. Help us have the courage to stay pure. Give us the strength to forgive and to protect our hearts from the damage of sin. In Jesus’ Name, amen.