FOR PERSONAL APPLICATION These aspects of the study can be used in between group sessions on your own, either with your spouse or individually as part of your devotional and confession life.
Do Something During the week ahead, turn your learning into doing.
Follow Tripp’s suggestion that, after the video, married couples go home, sit down, and apologize to one another for selfish behavior. This needs to be sincere and authentic, with reference to specific habits and actual instances. But it does not need to be drawn out —you cannot heal your marriage in one night, but you can initiate a line of communication for apology and begin to make it a habit. Just confess one or two things, acknowledge your forgiveness of the other, and resolve to change. Then order pizza and turn on the television. Search Me, O God For introspection during the coming week. Recall specific instances in which you were confronted about your sin and selfish behavior by other people, particularly by your spouse. Did you humbly accept their correction and acknowledge your faults? Did you thank them for caring enough and for being vulnerable enough to confront you? Did you resolve, before them and the Lord, to repent of that behavior and to change, to become more Christ-like in that matter? Or did you deny your guilt and defend your actions? Or did you turn it around and accuse them of causing you to behave that way? Do you need to apologize and ask for forgiveness? Want to Know More? Above, we discussed Adam and Eve’s denial and blame-shifting when confronted with their sin ( Genesis 3:9-13 ). It turns out that the Bible records many instances in which people confronted with their guilt refuse to be corrected—thereby proving that we all are, in fact, Adam’s progeny. A survey of these instances is helpful on many levels: as a window into your own heart, a sadly humorous listing of the creative ways guilty humans hide their sin (and lose their dignity), a somber warning about the result of denial, and a reminder that even if we are successful in hiding our sin from humans, God sees all. Here are a few such passages:
• Sarah, Genesis 18:9-15 • Rachel, Genesis 31:17-35 • Saul, 1 Samuel 15:10-31
• Gehazi, 2 Kings 5:15-27 • A general statement, Proverbs 19:3
• Anaias and Saphira, Acts 5:1-11
But at last, consider King David, who initially balked at correction but then properly repented. His sin still cost him a great deal but, as promised in John 1:9 , God forgave him his sin and cleansed him from unrighteousness: read 2 Samuel 11-12 , and Psalm 51 . For More From Paul Tripp, Read: Marriage: 6 Gospel Commitments Every Couple Needs to Make, Chapters 7 and 8
Session 4
WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?
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