Sacred Marriage: What If God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy?

I absolutely highly recommend this book to every couple looking to better their marriage together as a Christian couple newly married and ones who have been together for 8 years 20 30 40 50+ years and newly weds and soon to be married as well. New to the faith still a good book and devotion to get!! I recommend the devotion for this book and loving him well together to help with your marriage and intimacy and relationship with God and how you view marriage and your spouse!

Okay, so I have a tendency to just browse and put stuff in my cart that seem like a good buy. Now this book is more than an amazing buy. I am engaged and we are a Godly couple. Our views on most things are similar but being human we have our differences. For me when I started this book it was right along my walk in Christ. Mr. Thomas elaborate on his point and a thought process of mine 'that every situation can be used to become closer to whom God want us to be and marriage is one of the best situation to put us on the fast track.' This book challenges us to look at marriage as a way to constantly reflectbon our actions, thoughts and attitudes within a relationship/marriage and focus on becoming a better us instead of looking at the flaws of our spouses and react accordingly. This book teaches us that our marriage is supposed to reflect on our relationship with God and everything we do to our spouse we are actually doing to God. I gave my fiance to read it, and he is encouraging everyone around him to get a copy because now he is seeing that Marriage really does help us to become closer to God. This book is awesome, I would definitely tell persons to read it and challenge their view of getting married for holiness instead of happiness and watch your relationship get stronger and much much much much much better. This book is more than a must read, its an insight into how to have a healthy, happy marriage through God.

Such an insightful book. I am currently reading it as part of my couples ministry class and it definitely causes you to stop and think about a lot of aspects that make a good marriage.

I’m engaged and getting married this summer and decided to read up on marriage and godliness. This book talks about the two like they aren’t opposite and that you can pursue godliness in marriage. I really love how the author writes and tells stories in here and how a lot of stories are very relatable for me. I am half way through and have enjoyed it thus far. I recommend this to people who are in happy and unhappy marriages, it can help you learn more about yourself, things you do or view that are false, toxic and unhealthy behaviors, unhealthy and harmful expectations on the spouse, etc… This book is very illuminating and revealing of what your underlying beliefs are and what it healthy and not healthy for marriage in terms of expectations and so on. I think if you’re looking to improve things yourself or just help yourself see things more biblically then this is a great read. And even if you’re not looking for it and just are hoping this could change your mind on things then I recommend this. I think we all could be a little bit more god centered and love better and this book orients you towards that 💛

I really like Gary Thomas's book, "Sacred Marriage: What if God Designed Marriage for Us to be Holy rather than Happy..." because he writes from the perspective of a person whose first love & passion is to serve God. He shows how that the work of marriage, in every dimension of this basic relationship, is actually designed by God to show the relationship of God & humankind, and to strengthen that eternal relationship at the same time we are bonding this earthbound relationship of 2 partners. He is a very self-reflective gent who applies his own life, education, & marriage to develop, describe, & analyze the different areas of living in marriage and as it has import on our spirituality. He uses other case studies & statistics as well. I was initially attracted to the book by the title. So much of today's writing on marriage or even on self, seems devoted to being just jolly happy at every turn. This seemed to meet real life with a desire for serving God (in whatever religion) in the on-going process of building a REAL marriage relationship that weathers the stormy seas of living or the dead calm of the mundane, but not to be martyrs. I gave it 4 stars because I did find myself feeling like it became a little repetitive; I had to leave it alone & read another book for a couple of days. Overall, I think it is a worthwhile read for anyone who truly wants to have his/her life count as having followed God, making that path through marriage.

Das Buch von Gary Thomas ist mir eher zufällig in die Hände gefallen. Aufgrund der guten Rezessionen beim amerikanischen Amazon habe ich es mir gekauft, aber es lag dann erst mal eine Weile zu Hause rum. Als mich dann aber vor einiger Zeit Fragen in Bezug auf Gott, die Ehe, Liebe, Partnerschaft usw. beschäftigten, fiel mir das Buch wieder ein. Ich habe es aus dem Regal genommen und angefangen zu lesen in der Hoffnung wenigstens ein paar Antworten auf meine Fragen zu finden. Was ich gefunden habe kann ich nicht wirklich beschreiben. Ich muss auch ehrlich gestehen, dass mir eigentlich gar nicht klar war, worum es in der Ehe überhaupt geht bzw. hatte ich eine völlig falsche Vorstellung (wie wohl leider die meisten Menschen). Die Frage um die es in dem Buch geht ist: Was ist wenn Gott die Ehe nicht geschaffen hat, um uns glücklich zu machen, sondern um uns ihm näher zu bringen? Gary Thomas erzählt in den Buch viel über seine eigene Ehe und eigenen Erfahrungen diesbezüglich und stellt auch immer wieder die Verbindung zur Bibel her. Er spricht über den Grund der Ehe und ihre Herausforderungen wie Lieben, Vergeben, Ausdauer, Respekt.... und vieles mehr. Ich kann das Buch wirklich nur empfehlen. Und es ist auch ein Buch, das man auch nachdem man es gelesen hat immer wieder in die Hand nimmt und bestimmte Seiten oder Abschnitte liest. Vielen Dank Gary Thomas für dieses wunderbare Buch!

This book is awesome!!!!! It has opened my mind and heart to important topics and on how marriage reveals what really is in our hearts, which staying single would not. In marriage we live a reality that is harder than any other and if we follow God instrucions, in His Word, not only will we find peace and happiness even during struggles but we will become holier every day more. God will be able to work in our hearts to make us better persons, will work on our selfishness, then we will want to only give and we will find that it is better to give than to receive. So difficult to express what a blessing this book has been to me and still is as I go back to it.

Good to read to understand what a real Christ-like marriage is about. Full of challenging truth.

This book is one of the most awesome book I've read. It has brought tremendous changes in me. I m in love with this book.

Excellent read on a topic that needs much more exposure in today’s day and age. Practical and theologically sound at the same time