Women can completely relate to the art of cooking, it’s a beautiful art that requires focus and mastery. When you want to eat a meal, it doesn’t just appear by merely desiring it, or just thinking about it.
It takes a lot of deliberateness to cook a nice and tasty meal. For food to be prepared a lot of things have to come together; these things are called ingredients.
Spice, proteins, vegetables, you name it. These things have to come together before you can have a meal, and depending on what you decide to combine, it results in the aroma, taste, and outlook of your end product.
Just like cooking is an art, marriage is also an art; the only difference is you can’t master it because every day is different.
But certainly, there are principles (ingredients) you can use to address every issue, to get certain results, regardless of whether it’s the same scenario or not.
Love is a major ingredient in marriage; it’s not just the feeling of butterflies or Goosebumps. Even those that have been married for a short while will agree with me that you don’t feel butterflies in your belly all the time.
What exactly is this ingredient called Love? Let us see what the bible says.
Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, but keeps going to the end. Love never dies. -1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (MSG)
As husband and wife, the greatest good you can do for yourselves is to love each other passionately, love yourself from the depths of your heart and really mean it.
Let love be without dissimulation.
I love the way that The Message Translation puts it.
Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. –Romans 12:9a (MSG)
Don’t fake love for each other; let your love be genuine, genuine love can be felt, and it will also reflect in every area.
Pray for one another’s weaknesses; take every anxiety and fear to God in the place of prayers. As you begin to do this, you will receive the strength to love your spouse appropriately and passionately.
So shall it be in Jesus name!
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I will love my spouse unconditionally
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, send your help into our marriage
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. –Proverbs 14:29 (KJV)
Dear couple, today I want to show you a powerful weapon that works all the time. Regardless of whatever season you are in your life or marriage, this weapon is a formidable one.
Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. -1Chronicles 29:13 (KJV)
There is one thing that the enemy cannot resist; it is the power of praise, when you learn to praise God all your enemies fall down at your feet.
No matter what the problem or situation is praise is a way out, when you praise, worship, and give thanksgiving to God, the enemy is confused, and there is confusion in the enemy’s camp.
Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. -1Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)
The devil hates joyful songs; he hates songs of adoration and thanksgiving to God, it gets him confused; he knows his strategy is not working, and his weaponry is not working.
His weapons won’t work because you are focused on something stronger, and better. you can’t be distracted, you are engaging the help of a God that consumes by fire.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” -Hebrews 12:28-29 (NIV)
Praise God all alone when it looks like the situation is not working when it looks like things are going awry when it looks like the children are wayward.
Praise God when the finances don’t seem to be flowing, praise him into your breakthrough, and you will surely rejoice!
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I will praise my God at all times, in every situation, and in every season
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, teach me to praise always
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Now, therefore, our God, we thank thee and praise thy glorious name. -1Chronicles 29:13 (KJV)
Dear couples in the house, it’s time to pray. If anyone asks you what time it is, tell them “it’s time to pray”.
It’s not time to play, sit, worry, think about the problem, complain about the situation, wish things were better, grumble at your maker, it is time to PRAY.
You’ve got to decide that this time, it is either you break through or you break through.
I am tired of where I am. I am tired of the status quo. I am tired of business as usual. I am tired of nothing much happening in my life. I am tired of “just being there”.
You’ve got to get to a point where you are no longer satisfied, a point where whatever is keeping you down-trodden must give way.
Whether it is a generational curse or something, it is time to get tired of it. Until you stop romancing your situation, don’t expect a change.
There are some things you have to break free from, some dangerous habits. Some things that are not making you move forward, some weights that keep drowning and pulling you back.
Some ungodly relationships you have to pull back from, some quarrels that are from the pit of hell, habits that only you know about.
You have to ask God to open the eyes of your understanding. You have to be ruthless with yourself. Whatever is not making you prosper or breakthrough, you have to address it in prayer. You must be ready to stick it out with God. God must know that “it is either He delivers you or He delivers you”.
This time I want you to make a quality decision. It is your time, and no one will take it from you. Make up your mind; decide to settle all that needs to be settled with God.
God said He will do a new thing.
I am believing Him not only for a new thing but for a new me; to be changed by the power of the most high God, to experience his Grace and His Mercy.
Set time out, a time set aside to wait on and for God, a time for God to break through in our homes, over our children.
All family issues will be dissolved during this time of prayer. All lineage issues will be broken. You will emerge. You will thrive. You will break through. God will decorate you with productivity in Jesus name.
God bless your marriage
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY Peace surrounds my home
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, help me to see the peace you have surrounded me with
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth––even those long ago dead and buried––will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ. –Philippians 2:9-10 (MSG)
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Meditate on “the benevolence of God”
Before we can talk of keeping love ablaze we have to talk of couples living true to their covenant responsibilities. First, we should know that our marriage has a certain mandate in the heart of God to fulfill.
And here’s a second offense: You fill the place of worship with your whining and sniveling because you don’t get what you want from God. Do you know why? Simple. Because God was there as a witness when you spoke your marriage vows to your young bride, and now you’ve broken those vows, broken the faith-bond with your vowed companion, your covenant wife. God, not you, made marriage. His Spirit inhabits even the smallest details of marriage. And what does he want from marriage? Children of God, that’s what. So guard the spirit of marriage within you. Don’t cheat on your spouse. -Malachi 2:13-15 (MSG)
Let’s see how the scripture goes in the Amplified version.
Yet you ask, Why does He reject it? Because the Lord was witness [to the covenant made at your marriage] between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously and to whom you were faithless. Yet she is your companion and the wife of your covenant [made by your marriage vows]. -Malachi 2:14 (AMPC)
This is an indication that God takes our marriage vows seriously.
Our marriage vows are not just some cute words spoken on our wedding day, it is a promise before God and then to our spouse.
It is this understanding that will help us to see the reason why love must be kept ablaze, it is a lifelong work. We have to keep at it, at good times and not-so-good times, if we don’t understand the covenant of marriage, we will struggle.
Finally, let me add this for women. Being your best means being a virtuous woman, protecting your husband by satisfying him always sexually, know that his vulnerability will increase and become more intense if you don’t. Refuse to cheat on him no matter what, come what may.
I pray God helps us all in Jesus name.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY The wine in my marriage will not run dry, our love is rekindled and our hearts burn for each other.
PRAYER FIR THE DAY Lord, help me to keep my marriage covenant
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Yet you ask, Why does He reject it? Because the Lord was witness [to the covenant made at your marriage] between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously and to whom you were faithless. Yet she is your companion and the wife of your covenant [made by your marriage vows]. -Malachi 2:14 (AMPC)
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Study the word ‘one flesh’
‘Virtuous’ from the Hebrew word ‘Chayil’ means excellence, strength, ability, efficiency and force.
The Bible talks about a Virtuous woman see how the scripture puts it;
Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. –Proverbs 31:10 (KJV)
She is the woman considered ‘balanced.’ She has her acts together. She has wisdom and strength and the force of an army. She is the epitome of Christian virtue in feminine form. She is the one who has discovered the secret of drawing strength from her maker and Lord.
She is gracious and elegant in every way, strong within and she stands for what she believes. She is a woman who knows her individuality and uniqueness and yet submits her will, desires, and opinions to her husband.
She is not trapped, hindered, or subservient. She is just submissive. She is not limited or restricted, she is simply fantastic.
All these may not sound like what you see in your fiancée or what you are now as a lady, but there is a hidden desire in every lady to become the Proverbs 31 woman.
God does not focus on our past, or concentrate on how fragile we are in the present. God looks out with pleasure and sees what we are capable of becoming in the future.
We are all ‘projects in progress’ God is still very much at work within us, healing the wounds from our past and strengthening our weak hands. Don’t allow anybody to abuse or despise you. Don’t condemn yourself. Only one person can condemn you, and that is God! But he has refused to do that!
Believe in yourself! You are the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31; the writer just wanted you to have the honour of putting your name there by yourself. Remember, the one who formed you said ‘you are very good!’
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I discover and develop my God-given gifts and talents.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Father in Jesus’ name, I ask for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in discovering my purpose and the grace to maximize it.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed. –Proverbs 29:18 (MSG)
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Remove the mental block and limitations that exist only in your mind.
