Unity or Destruction in a Marriage

1 Corinthians 7:4-5 "The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control." NIV
"The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife. Do not deprive each other of sexual relations, unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time so you can give yourselves more completely to prayer. Afterward, you should come together again so that Satan won't be able to tempt you because of your lack of self-control." NLT

      Lord, I have to be honest with You.  There were times when I thought, humanly speaking, that it was weird that You chose an unmarried man with no children to write the two largest passages in the New Testament on marriage and family.  But again, I must admit that You are the expert and it does not matter who You choose to write Your thoughts.  There are folks in our churches (and the skeptics outside them) that say that these passages and teaching from unmarried Bible teachers like Nancy DeMoss should be taken with a pound of salt because they never have lived that life.  These naysayers do not understand that it is YOU who are teaching through them.  You not only made us, but give us Your owner's manual!
      You, through Paul, are establishing the boundaries for Your creation with our best interest in mind because You love us so much.  At the time Paul wrote this, there were Greeks in the church who felt that all sex was immoral so were abstaining within the marriage bond.  On the other side, because immorality was so prevalent in the Corinthian culture, there were those who were married who did not see sex outside of marriage as a real issue.
      My Life Application Bible has a note: "Married couples have a responsibility to care for one another.  Spiritually, our bodies belong to God when we become Christians because of the blood of Christ for us.  Physically, our bodies belong to our spouses (in the marriage union) because God designed marriage so that, through the union of husband and wife, the two would become one flesh."
      Satan's plan has always been to divide and destroy everything You have made, and to rebel against everything You have commanded when it comes to humans, and especially when it comes to humans that belong to You!  There is no better way to destroy than to attack the family unit, and he knows that.  He started in the Garden of Eden!
      Lord, our families are under severe attack still.  I especially feel for our military families.  Now that females are allowed in the military on an ever widening basis, separation because of deployments or temporary duty assignments wreak havoc.   Not only are couples separated, but the opposite sex is in very close proximity far away from home.  I am sure the temptation is very great and the stalwart abstainers are mocked.  We see the rubble everywhere. Husbands and wives on either side await the homecoming of their spouse with anticipation and are met with , " I found I don't need you and have found someone else who can be here for me." 
      Sometimes it is money that drives the wedge.  In this case the separation is voluntary.  Husband or wives leave for a foreign country that is too hostile to take the family or away from home in the states, presumably for a short time because the money is  better, and then find someone there and decide to stay, serving thier spouse divorce papers.
      Lord, I am so glad that my two boys who served and were subject to deployments and training away from family stayed true to their spouses and families!  Thank You for answered prayer in their lives!  I pray for all those Christians who faithfully serve all over the world, and for all of Your children in our churches that You would keep them mindful of these verses and faithful to them and to their spouses so Your church can really be salt and light in this wicked and perverse generation!