Basic Renewal Ceremony
Exchange of Vows
To Eric – as a Husband, you bear the responsibility of loving your wife as Christ loved the church. This means you act towards her with her best interests always in mind. Your love is sacrificial – it costs you something. Your love is fully devoted – you may not have any other women – for you are declaring the devoted love of Christ to His Bride. You must bear full responsibility for everything in your home – you must grow in your understanding of covenantal headship and manifest that in the way you approach the Lord in your prayers, in the way you study and bring the Scriptures to bear in all of your life, in the way that you treat your wife and in the way that you train up your children. You must understand her frame, honor her as the weaker vessel, know what it is to be gentle, kind and longsuffering with her.
Your love must make her lovely, for your love is to transform her into a more and more lovely bride, just as Christ’s love is sanctifying His Bride. Your love must be nourishing – your wife must find her security and rest and food for her soul, as much as it depends upon the things of this earth – in you. Do not deny her this blessing.
You are required to delight yourself in your wife – this is not a ball and chain – this is a fenced garden. You alone have been admitted into this garden and there is much to explore, to enjoy, to cultivate and to harvest. Go and enjoy your wife for the rest of your life by the grace of God.
To Julie – as a Wife, you bear the responsibility of reflecting the devotion of the church to Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom. You must respect, honor, and love your husband, and this is required from this day forward regardless of whether he is respectable, honorable or lovable. Your respect will in fact make him more respectable – you have a duty and a privilege to have that kind of impact upon this man. Do it to the glory of God.
As a wife, you are required to be gracious to your husband –
An excellent wife is a crown to her husband – this means that you are the glory of your husband – and so, an excellent wife speaks with great respect about her husband to others and to her husband. A gracious wife is home-centered, providing a home-base for the ministry of the particular family she serves.
Proverbs also teaches that She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness and so you must be known for your wisdom and kindness – Seek this out from the Word of God and from godly women who have walked with the Lord for years.
The desire of your husband is to be for you – make sure that you give yourself to him in such a way that his desire is always for you – as companion, as friend, as confidant, as lover, as sister in the Lord.
None of us is able to succeed in such high callings without the grace and strength of God by His Holy Spirit working in us. Therefore, humble yourselves before Him, seek His grace, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, do not forsake the gathering together of the saints, seek out good instruction from the Word and elders who will hold you accountable to these vows.
Eric – repeat after me -
“I, Eric, renew my commitment to you, Julie, as my wedded wife; and I do promise and covenant before God and these witnesses; to be your loving and faithful husband; I promise to lay down my life for you as Christ gave Himself for His Bride; in all honor, for better and for worse, in plenty and in want; in joy and in sorrow; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish as long as we both shall live.”
Julie – Repeat after me -
“I, Julie, renew my commitment to you, Eric, as my wedded husband; and I do promise and covenant before God and these witnesses; to be your loving and faithful wife, submitting to you, my husband, as to the Lord; with all respect, for better and for worse, in plenty and in want; in joy and in sorrow; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish as long as we both shall live.”
Prayer of Blessing
Most gracious God, we give you thanks for your tender love in sending Jesus Christ to come among us, to be born of a human mother, and to make the way of the cross to be the way of life. We thank you, also, for consecrating the union of man and woman in his Name. By the power of your Holy Spirit, pour out the abundance of your blessing upon this man and this woman. Defend them from every enemy. Lead them into all peace. Let their love for each other be a seal upon their hearts, a mantle about their shoulders, and a crown upon their foreheads. Bless them in their work and in their companionship; in their sleeping and in their waking; in their joys and in their sorrows; in their life and in their death. Finally, in your mercy, bring them to that table where your saints feast for ever in your heavenly home; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
To Eric – as a Husband, you bear the responsibility of loving your wife as Christ loved the church. This means you act towards her with her best interests always in mind. Your love is sacrificial – it costs you something. Your love is fully devoted – you may not have any other women – for you are declaring the devoted love of Christ to His Bride. You must bear full responsibility for everything in your home – you must grow in your understanding of covenantal headship and manifest that in the way you approach the Lord in your prayers, in the way you study and bring the Scriptures to bear in all of your life, in the way that you treat your wife and in the way that you train up your children. You must understand her frame, honor her as the weaker vessel, know what it is to be gentle, kind and longsuffering with her.
Your love must make her lovely, for your love is to transform her into a more and more lovely bride, just as Christ’s love is sanctifying His Bride. Your love must be nourishing – your wife must find her security and rest and food for her soul, as much as it depends upon the things of this earth – in you. Do not deny her this blessing.
You are required to delight yourself in your wife – this is not a ball and chain – this is a fenced garden. You alone have been admitted into this garden and there is much to explore, to enjoy, to cultivate and to harvest. Go and enjoy your wife for the rest of your life by the grace of God.
To Julie – as a Wife, you bear the responsibility of reflecting the devotion of the church to Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom. You must respect, honor, and love your husband, and this is required from this day forward regardless of whether he is respectable, honorable or lovable. Your respect will in fact make him more respectable – you have a duty and a privilege to have that kind of impact upon this man. Do it to the glory of God.
As a wife, you are required to be gracious to your husband –
An excellent wife is a crown to her husband – this means that you are the glory of your husband – and so, an excellent wife speaks with great respect about her husband to others and to her husband. A gracious wife is home-centered, providing a home-base for the ministry of the particular family she serves.
Proverbs also teaches that She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness and so you must be known for your wisdom and kindness – Seek this out from the Word of God and from godly women who have walked with the Lord for years.
The desire of your husband is to be for you – make sure that you give yourself to him in such a way that his desire is always for you – as companion, as friend, as confidant, as lover, as sister in the Lord.
None of us is able to succeed in such high callings without the grace and strength of God by His Holy Spirit working in us. Therefore, humble yourselves before Him, seek His grace, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, do not forsake the gathering together of the saints, seek out good instruction from the Word and elders who will hold you accountable to these vows.
Eric – repeat after me -
“I, Eric, renew my commitment to you, Julie, as my wedded wife; and I do promise and covenant before God and these witnesses; to be your loving and faithful husband; I promise to lay down my life for you as Christ gave Himself for His Bride; in all honor, for better and for worse, in plenty and in want; in joy and in sorrow; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish as long as we both shall live.”
Julie – Repeat after me -
“I, Julie, renew my commitment to you, Eric, as my wedded husband; and I do promise and covenant before God and these witnesses; to be your loving and faithful wife, submitting to you, my husband, as to the Lord; with all respect, for better and for worse, in plenty and in want; in joy and in sorrow; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish as long as we both shall live.”
Prayer of Blessing
Most gracious God, we give you thanks for your tender love in sending Jesus Christ to come among us, to be born of a human mother, and to make the way of the cross to be the way of life. We thank you, also, for consecrating the union of man and woman in his Name. By the power of your Holy Spirit, pour out the abundance of your blessing upon this man and this woman. Defend them from every enemy. Lead them into all peace. Let their love for each other be a seal upon their hearts, a mantle about their shoulders, and a crown upon their foreheads. Bless them in their work and in their companionship; in their sleeping and in their waking; in their joys and in their sorrows; in their life and in their death. Finally, in your mercy, bring them to that table where your saints feast for ever in your heavenly home; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”