Today’s topic is very important, And I want you to give it rapt attention, “Don’t let joy wither from your marriage”. I know youare a perfectionist. You like to fix everything and everybody. You don’t like things out of order. You feel the compulsion to fix your spouse. They have to be in a certain way. Eat in a certain way, laugh a certain way, or talk in a certain way. Oga, free yourself! You are not the Holy Ghost. You cannot change anybody so don’t kill yourself trying.
You are sensitive. If things don’t go the way you want, your day or week is spoilt.
It is good to demand high standards from our spouse and children lest we become mediocre. We have to understand that we can only influence people to change.
Most of our frustrations in marriage is because we are trying too hard to fix our spouse. Don’t forget we are only privileged to be married to our spouse. They are as much individuals just as we are. They have their own opinions, view points, ideologies and standards.
Even your babies are individuals and must be treated with respect. We should respect the fact that they are separate entities. How much more should you respect your spouse!
If you become too forcy about trying to have things done your way, first you won’t get the best of your spouse. They will be living under your shadow, not expressing their individuality. Things will be boring around you. You want to force people to be and do exactly like you want?
Learn to be joyful. Be happy. Be someone with gladness all the time. Let your spouse be happy around you. Give room for expression of their individuality.
Don’t let joy wither from your home and marriage. Celebrate your wins. Celebrate small victories as though they are big wins and eventually the big wins will come.
Things dry up because you allow joy to dry up. Finances, testimonies, breakthrough are all a response to our joy.
The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord ; the priests, the Lord’s ministers, mourn. The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. Joel 1:9 – 12 KJV
Things dry up when we allow joy to dry up. Let nothing steal your joy.
As couples, consciously and intentionally make room for joy. Learn being cheerful. Practise it. It is a command from God.
Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4 KJV
God won’t ask us to do what He knows we can’t do. He asked us to rejoice. It is not a suggestion. It is not based on our situation. The word is the same under favorable and unfavourable situations.
Rejoice in your home. Rejoice in your marriage. Rejoice ever more.
We have to consciously respond to the joy in our spirit. That joy is in us. It is in our recreated human spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22 – 23 KJV
As a wife, the tempo and atmosphere of the marriage and home depends largely on you. So maintain your joy. If the devil cannot steal your joy he can’t have your goods. He can’t have your marriage. Your marriage and home belongs to God.
Whatever you are trusting God for, rejoice, celebrate and be thankful, sing songs of joy.
All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. Proverbs 15:15 KJV
God bless your marriage.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I am joyful always.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Pray for the spirit of joy in your home.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4 KJV
One of the most difficult things to do is to try and maintain the spiritual glow now that you are married. Before marriage, my husband would read about 40 chapters of the bible, pray in tongues for hours and practice the presence of God. Apart from the fact that he is a pastor and must study and pray, all those times given to reading 40 chapters are no longer there.
When you are a married couple your time just seemed to be shared. It is no longer your time. The home is there, the kids are there to take care, responsibilities keep piling up and you just have your 24 hours in a day to maintain all that balance.
With maturity comes the ability to do a lot of things together at once, it is called multitasking.
As a mother, if you don’t know how to multitask, you have not yet started, especially if you are a career woman. If you have a job you do, I mean 8am to 6pm job like I used to do, and you don’t have a maid, and you have a ministry and God’s people to oversee, you had better know how to multitask, because multitasking is a must skill.
You have to learn to continually maintain the spiritual tempo not only of yourself but of the home. I am not there yet and I have to repent sometimes of not doing what I should be doing in terms of spiritual activities. I just come to terms that what has to be done must be done. So my daily reading of God’s word, my daily prayers, my daily confessions must be observed no matter what.
So, you must make a quality decision to make your spiritual glow a priority.
May God bless your marriage.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY We are strengthened
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, strengthen our marriage
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 2Sa 22:33 (KJV) God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect.
This morning I prophesy to you, the womb of your life shall not be empty. Receive the power to experience fruitfulness in your marriage in the name of Jesus
This prayer is not just for married women only looking for the fruit of the womb but for every man and woman who wants to be fruitful, to multiply and to fulfill destiny in life. God abhors fruitlessness and you will see God in scriptures opening wombs and causing them to conceive and bear children.
I am persuaded this morning that if you are trusting God for your own miracle child, just hold on to God. He is ever faithful to do that which He has promised.
Every womb is destined to carry babies, that is God’s intention, so for the womb not to fulfill that purpose is an error. Now, your womb is that part of you that makes you function in the class of God.
Your womb is that God ordained part of you where you conceive God given ideas, where your brain child is nurtured and ready to be birthed. It is that part of you that connects you to divinity making you relevant and a celebrity on earth. Your womb is that place where the greatest miracle of all time takes place. It is a part of you God has access to, where you share in His ability to create.
Your womb shall not be barren or empty. God’s blessing and favor will come upon your life and you will accomplish all your heart desires. You will fulfill life and destiny. Your life will turn out beautiful. You will be celebrated and relevant in this life. Generations after you will refer to you.
You will reach the zenith of your life. You will not be cut off in the midst of your days. Like Esau, you will not trade your glory for a morsel of bread. You will not offer your glory on the altar of pleasure.
So shall it be for you and yours.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY
I am fruitful. I will conceive
PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Lord, I receive the grace to be fruitful in all areas
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
“You’re here to bear fruit, reproduce, lavish life on the Earth, live bountifully!”” (Gen 9:7, MSG)
Many of us have some unpleasant things going on in our marriages. We may have been praying for a long time for God to answer our prayers. We may be frustrated about God not answering our prayers.
I don’t know if you have been there before. A friend came to visit me and she told me when discussing that it’s a man’s world.
For wives, in our marriage, we always feel that way. We have to go through God in prayers for God to speak to our husbands before we have some of our desires. That is the process for every God-fearing woman to take when it comes to dealing with our husbands in marriage
There is a very powerful scripture that tells us that God is so concerned about us and had given us all things
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: Ephesians 1:3 KJV
God has blessed every man, woman, couple, boy, and girl with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
He has already blessed us with peace in our home, joy in our marriages, health in our bodies, soundness of mind, favor, material blessings, possessions, et cetera, all spiritual blessings.
These blessings are spiritual in nature and in heavenly places. You may ask why? It is because our God is a spirit and a spirit can only give spiritual blessings. The blessings are in heavenly places because that is the best place for them to be kept safe from Satan.
God gives us all things to richly enjoy. He gave us all things because we are the object of His love. God loves you so much. You have to receive and accept that by faith.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 KJV
God has already given us everything we need. All we have to do is receive them. Every believer must be a Receiver. Our faith does not change God. Our faith makes us receive all that God had for us.
God has His ATM of blessings. We have to learn to withdraw from it. The blessings are limitless. There is no boundaries, no limits.
The moment you believe you received, you have those things. Believe in your heart those things you desire are already yours. No doubts in your heart
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. James 1:5 – 7 KJV
Go ahead and receive your joy, peace, understanding, love, unity, oneness etc. Remember they are already yours.
Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 1 Corinthians 3:21 KJV
God bless your marriage.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I receive all that God has for me
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Ask the Holy Spirit to help you.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: Ephesians 1:3 KJV
Imagine two love birdsintending to get married. They are so much in love. And then comes a time, when the parents of the bride wants to know where the intending groom lives, and as a consequence where their daughter will be domiciled.
And then he proudly leads them to his house, a makeshift shaft, tent-like material supported with tiny sticks which can collapse anytime.
Right there and then, the parents will change their mind.
Jesus spoke about a house built on sand and the other built on the rock. If you were to choose one, which will you choose?
In a deliberate manner, every couple must decide to build their marriage with Cedars and not just some fancy sticks that will give way to irreconcilable differences.
The scripture that inspired my write up today is found in
Son 1:17 (KJV) The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.
A cedar is pleasing to the eye and smell, hard, and never eaten by worms. It is combined habits and practices with which you build your marriage.
Never allow your marriage to be built with materials of carelessness, indecisiveness, mediocrity, laziness and visionless leadership.
Rather, surround yourselves with regularized prayer life, confession laden marriage, strife free zone, and a perpetual giving lifestyle.
These are what will birth cedars with which a great marriage is built.
Take communion regularly, don’t wait till Sunday. Be open to each other and be extremely honest, naked and not ashamed.
Let the husband love his wife as Christ love the church by laying down his life, and let the wife see that she honour her husband, giving him all the honour and respect that he deserves.
Let the love of God be shed abroad in your hearts, forgiving quickly and loving each other with God’s love.
Dear husband, dear wife, have a great and fulfilling day!
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY My marriage is built with the right resources.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Ask God for the builder’s wisdom.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Song 1:17 (AMP)The beams of our house are cedars, and our rafters and panels are cypresses or pines.
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Be deliberate about your building materials
