Praise the Lord for more awesome confirmation! It will never cease to amaze me how faithful God is to confirm and repeat over and over again from one source after another the important messages He wants to convey to us! And that’s exactly what happened again this morning when I received the following link in an email message from a FAM member with a note saying that it had spoken volumes to her. This message is why it is so important for everyone standing for marriage restoration to truly believe and live according to the promise God gives us in Romans 8:28; we have to believe that HE IS GOING TO CAUSE ALL THINGS to work together for good when we love Him and are called according to HIS purpose! So read this message from ChristNtes.org, and learn to embrace the changes God wants to make in you and you can’t help being blessed and encouraged!

I received my Covenant Keepers newsletter yesterday and I want to share some of what Pastor Ken Savage stated in an article he wrote.

First of all, he states, “The world is using smoke and mirrors against the Body of Christ in the hope of compromising and numbing us into worldly conformity. Rather than offering covenant counseling and marriage intervention, the church has bought into the world’s illusion of happiness and narcissism, and offers divorce recovery classes. How can the church be so far from the heart of God? He hates divorce and yet divorce is promoted as a viable model above reconciliation and dying to selfishness.”

He does add that the good news is that in the last days God is going to rend heaven and dispel the illusions of the world. Our perception, as a witness to the Lord’s healing power, will be greatly advanced in the near future.

He goes on to say that waiting for God to restore our marriages is not passive in any way, shape or fashion. It is an aggressive tarrying and seeking the Lord. We should have a rather quiet desperation for His presence. But Pastor Savage explains that waiting for the Lord’s timing and presence is critical. So our goal needs to be seeking God’s presence; waiting on Him to show up in power and glory. And restoration will be the byproduct of His presence.

He continues by saying that as we wait on the Lord, we begin to walk in righteousness; which is the task of the believer. The Lord will meet you, join with you, empower you, and fill you as you seek to walk in righteousness. He tells us that this is the practical living out of the declared righteousness spoken over us when we believe.

The most powerful part of the article for me was when I read the following:
“ As you stand for the healing of your marriage, you will be tempted time and time again to act in an unrighteous manner. It is then that Jesus will meet you and respond in righteousness, rather than the flesh. This is the key factor that brought me back to my wife. I was convinced of my sin not by Lauren’s words, but by the righteous behavior she displayed. Her righteous kindness brought me to repentance. Her Godly actions brought me to desire reconciliation. Her continued righteous living completed our restoration. She met with the Lord and walked out her declared righteousness.”

We must continuously and constantly walk with the Lord, calling out His name in all we do. We have to acknowledge our need and dependence on Him. He is our hope and our future in everything. As we become more and more dependent on God and His Word, our intimacy with Him grows and we are able to hear and listen to what His plans for us are. And when we have that knowledge, we can be obedient and fully reap the benefits God has for us as we dedicate our lives to righteous living according to His Word.

One of our new members shared something that was said at her church by a minister; “Failure is an opportunity for God to show his favor!” Wow, that struck me hard, as I can NOW believe that! Psalm 53:17 is a verse that jumped out at me some time ago; it says “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

This verse seems to go right along with what the minister was saying. In regard to our marriage situation, when we have had it, totally given up on everything, tried everything, cried our eyes out, at the end of our rope, felt the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak; that is when God can work in us! I think this is when God would say “Good, NOW you are ready!” Our heart has been HUMBLED, we are BROKEN, and we are sorry for all of OUR wrongs and shortcomings. Our finger is not pointing to our spouses anymore, but it is pointing at US. And we begin to ask God to HEAL US, to CHANGE US!! God is very pleased with this sacrifice; it is better than a burnt offering, because we have come to realize that it is God who we need FIRST and FOREMOST!! That’s when God can begin to change us; when our hearts are open to Him and OH SO HUMBLE! God can then pour His love into us and heal our broken hearts. And then watch out!!! Circumstances are going to start to change for the better in our stand for our marriages when we begin to let go and put GOD in control of not just our marriages, but our entire lives! When we just love God, delight in Him and learn about Him and fall in love with Jesus, the awesome power of God begins to work! Our spouses begin to change; they seem to draw nearer to us. There are all kinds of super natural happenings! I know; because it has happen to me! There were so many praises once I learned to release everything to the Lord! Psalm 37:4 tells us “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Numbers 23:19 tells us “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” WOW! Yay GOD! What a mighty promise this is!! Let us continue to Trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and lean not to our own understanding! God will direct our paths. And if God be for us, who can be against us! What a mighty, awesome God we serve!!

Love
Doris