Prayer: Father, all scripture is inspired by Your Holy Spirit. I look forward to gaining new insight into life done Your way. Amen.
Reading: Ecclesiastes 4 key: vs. 9-12 “Two are better than one, because they get a good return for their effort. For if they fall, the one will lift up his companion. But oy to the one who falls and has no one to lift him up! Furthermore, if two lie together, then they will be warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though a man might overpower one, two can stand against him. Moreover a threefold cord cannot be quickly broken.” TLV
Attention: I have heard this passage used for business partners, friendships, and for marriage. I have witnessed the benefits of the efforts of two versus doing something by yourself. In the nineties, I worked for a painting company owned and operated by two friends. Each had older brothers who had formed the company and used their painting business to finance their ways through college, handing the business off to the next brother as they completed college and began new careers. The youngest two brothers of each family kept the business as they graduated from college and still own the business today. Being Christian men, they embodied this passage, committed to each other, lifting each other up.
There is another dimension addressed in this passage which assures success. The symbolism of a three stranded cord represents the dimension of God and man (especially spouses) knit together spiritually.
I recently needed to remove several steel posts which had been driven into the clay soil around our property. My neighbor came over to show me how he had removed a couple of steel posts. We used a heavy-duty jack and a three stranded rope. The only thing I had was a nylon tie down which I believe would have snapped under the pressure of the tension created by the jack. By about the sixth post, even the rope began to fray, but it held and we accomplished removing them all. It was a show of strength provided by three strands.
For those men who are married, I hope that you see your marriage as a three stranded relationship, you, your spouse, and God. I cannot imagine a marriage which is not bound with the Spirit of God.
Action: I choose to embrace my marriage with the three strands concept of Spirit, spouse, and myself.
Yield: I choose to submit to the three-strand concept of relationship with my spouse.
Engage: I choose to engage with the Holy Spirit in binding my marriage together.
Relationship: I choose to live in holy, intimate, obedient relationship with God at the center.
Prayer: Father, thank You for the binding power of the Holy Spirit. Bind me together with my spouse. Bind me with Your Spirit and with the forever family which You are forming. Amen.
Memory Verse: Ecclesiastes 4:12 “Though a man might overpower one, two can stand against him. Moreover, a threefold cord cannot be quickly broken.” TLV
Music Video: Worship—Bind Us Together https://youtu.be/wRwfTS_Ne0o?si=rpcYukCh7gEEubjS
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”