God commands all His children to present themselves to Him as a living sacrifice set apart for Him alone. Likewise God requires each couple to set their marriage apart, for Him alone. What God commands is that you do not behave conventionally according to the world's standard, you do not blend in, keep in step, fit in or toe the line according to the system around you. The system around you is very loose, allows nearly everything, especially the things God the creator of man and marriage expressly condemns.

In offering your marriage as a living sacrifice, God commands you to stay away from adultery, impurity, indecency, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, divisions, envy, drunkenness and wild parties. All these will eventually ruin any marriage.

There is no doubt that God wants your marriage happy and blessed, in order to do this He demands your obedience and has warned you to stay away from all the things listed above. These are some of the things He commands you to embrace: love, joy(gladness), peace, patience(an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness(benevolence), faithfulness, gentleness(meekness, humility), and self control. All these bring Him great pleasure.

In doing this you will create an environment where God's blessings abound. Go through these things one by one and prayerfully ask God to help you build a marriage that honours Him and stands out as a living sacrifice unto Him and Him alone.

Be determined in your marriage to please Him.