Sister Faith was spiritual! While on campus, she was everywhere. From prayer group, to the Choir and then the missions, she tirelessly served God and it was obvious God’s hands were upon her. She counseled younger ladies, prayed for them and ensured new converts were established in the fellowship. The fellowship missed her like “Mississippi” when she left.
At the one year national orientation camp, the fire continued to burn, but not for long! The news soon filtered, she got involved in a relationship with someone who is not born again. All the attempts of other ‘brethren’ to stop her were futile.
In later years, she was not happy. Her rich husband would not allow her to work or serve God. She became a permanent house wife, disappeared from church and later entered in to depression. Needless to say, she did not enjoy her marriage.
The question of destiny! This one cannot be over emphasized. As singles, you cannot be involved with a man or woman that has no sense of destiny in God! In these days, and for whatever reason, you should not go into a marriage with someone that will hinder or stop your relationship with God.
There are dream killers and destiny destroyers. When you marry such people, whole destinies can be swallowed up.
I feel like I’ve got a trumpet in my mouth to sound a warning to this generation about emotions and sexuality. You see, God cannot be mocked! Marriage is not what you fall into like a lamb being led to the slaughter because you are in love. Marriage comes with pressures, and those pressures are amplified when you get married to someone with no sense of destiny.
With marriage, dreams can come alive, and dreams can die, literally vapourize until you become a shadow of yourself. With marriage, the heavens can be opened, and with it the heavens can also become iron.
With marriage, you can move to your next level in God and you can be reduced to the level of your partner. With marriage, you can enter into unbelievable rebellion and bite the fingers that fed you, and you can honour those who have contributed to your life positively.
With marriage, you can find your rhyme, come alive with hidden gifts bursting out into manifestation and divine expressions, and gifts can also be wrapped up and buried in the tomb of unbelief and depression.
Why is marriage that powerful? You see it is a covenant.
In the book of Proverbs, the Bible says God’s word will keep you away from evil men and strange women. So, there are evil men and strange women.
There are Delilahs whose mission is to destroy. There are Jezebels whose mission is to use you. There are Samsons who are anointed but are full of lust and will not mind sleeping with you before marriage and then preach next day. There are Herods who don’t see anything in killing infants and will take to abort over and over.
In marriage, destinies are wedged together. Like the dog whose jaws are locked when it bites, there are people you kiss and your jaws are locked. In marriage, blessings and afflictions become intertwined and your issues become his\her issues.
May God guide you as you choose wisely.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I will apply discretion in every area of my relationship as God helps me.
PRAYERS FOR THE DAY I will not be entwined with a destiny-killer in Jesus’ name.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY James 4:12 MSG God is in charge of deciding human destiny. Who do you think you are to meddle in the destiny of others?
Thereare couples that are sitting on a keg of powder! As married couples, you are to deliberately work things out in your marriage and with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Here is what the scripture says:
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12 KJV)
In marriage, you are to work things out. A relationship or courtship does not lead to marriage automatically, you are to work things out in your disposition, attitude and reactions. A marriage does not just succeed; you are to work things out between yourselves.
Now there are some couple combinations that are sure to crack along the way. When you find yourself in these spots, you need to seek help prayerfully and with a lot of wisdom to address the lurking issues. Here are those combinations:
1. Two people who are unbelievers Two people who are unbelievers may love themselves, may be committed to each other, but when the storms of life come, they will fight their battles alone and you know, some of those battles can be very fierce.
They will not have God’s support since they don’t have a relationship with God. They will not have the benefit of son ship and it can be very intense! They need to connect with God!
2. Two people who are believers but refuse to grow The second group of couples are those who may be believers but whose minds are not renewed. The only thing is that they already have a relationship with God, but apart from that, they are still carnal.
They still do their stuffs like unbelievers would do. They still want to have fun in forbidden areas and they still want to explore the perverse, which would often come with dire consequences.
My advice for couples in this group is that they seek help as soon as possible.
3. Two people where one is born again and the other is not Here is another scenario that doesn’t always play out well, except with a lot of patience, prayers and perseverance.
I always advise singles, don’t think of getting married to someone who doesn’t have a relationship with God. It would always be filled with challenges that you might have to fight alone, because you are not agreed on your choice of weapons.
You want to pray, but he or she thinks you are just being fanatical. That can be very disconcerting, to say the least. It is always a good combo when both are agreed and are going in the same direction in terms of belief systems and practices.
To be continued…
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I will grow in my relationship with my spouse.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, open the eyes of my understanding.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 2 Corinthians 6:14 (KJV) Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Decide to be faithful to your partner
We’ll be considering the intricacies of cheating on your spouse this morning. It is one thing to find it difficult to sin, a situation where you have to really look and search for sin or the tools of sin to compromise, it is another story, another ball game entirely when the sin is so available, staring you in the face, calling and you, pulling you and wooing you with all kind of entreaties.
It is one thing to be tempted with the sin that doth not so easily beset you; it is another thing entirely to be poked at by the fingers of your weaknesses!
Such is the generation we have found ourselves!
Sin is available! Jeru trip is available at your beck and call.
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1 KJV)
We are not in this race of life alone! We’ve got some saints up there in the balcony of heaven, looking down on us and getting excited, when we say No to sin!
It is our responsibility then to lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us! We’ve got to lay aside every spiritual fat and parasitic sin!
If you live in a very busy environment and you and your spouse are involved in an intense job, day in day out, you have to go a long way to ensure you keep the devil at bay.
Take for example, both of you work in a place like Lagos state, Nigeria, you leave home as early as 5.30am and sometimes you are not back till 10.00pm because of traffic congestion. The proclivity is that you will likely spend more time with your colleagues than with your spouse! It is with deliberate and decisive heart coupled with the fear of God that you make up your mind to be faithful in your marriage.
Here are few points to note:
1. Cheating on your spouse is cheating on your destiny Why is this so? It is a direct violation of the principles of God, so you end up not having God’s support and favour in your life. It is not worth it.
Why would you cheat on your spouse? What kind of Jeru trip are you looking for that you won’t find in your spouse?
Why play with fire. Will you carry fire in your bosom and not be burned? Will you walk on hot coals and your feet not be singed? I doubt!
2. Cheating on your spouse is a stupid idea. Now I didn’t say that, God did. I am only echoing what God said.
But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. (Proverbs 6:32 KJV)
Now see that in Message translation because KJV seems to be really nice there.
Adultery is a brainless act, soul–destroying, self–destructive; (Proverbs 6:32 Message)
Brainless! That’s not nice at all, but that is the truth! What the scripture is saying here is that if we can think deeply, we would not dabble into adultery for anything in this world.
We see right there the implication of adultery.
Expect a bloody nose, a black eye, and a reputation ruined for good. For jealousy detonates rage in a cheated husband; wild for revenge, he won’t make allowances (Proverbs 6:33-34 Message)
The next time somebody is trying to talk you into some compromise, go ahead and tell that other person, that would be a stupid idea.
There is something about being faithful. It has tremendous rewards!
To be continued.
May God grant us more understanding.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I am a responsible husband/wife.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, open the eyes of my understanding.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Decide to be faithful to your spouse
We used to hear this phrase about marriage a lot long time ago, but nowadays, we hardly hear such a thing. The world has gone digital, fast and every body seems busy.
Knowledge has made people to replace old values with modern ones. The question is does modernization makes our conclusions about marriage right?
The modern day view of marriage is contractual while the good old days view marriage as in Gods eyes as a covenant.
Contractual view says, you do this, then I do that’. While covenant says, I will do this for you because I am committed to you. It doesn’t really matter what you do or don’t do’.
Marriage as a contract is always based on negotiations, convenience, and protection of self. Each spouse maintain their lanes and do what is expected. Otherwise the marriage contact does not work and they go their separate ways which means separation or divorce.
In this case, marriage is not for a common goal. There is no fulfilling purpose or destiny together in view. There is no sense of purpose or God bringing the couples together to fulfill a mandate or an assignment.
All that is involved is ‘I am attracted to you, and you to me. We have a love connection between us and we are good to go’.
Marriage is for better for worse. This is a little scary which brings with it a sense of awe. Two hearts beating as one is a mystery. That mystery can only be unraveled by the help of divinity.
Here, there is a sense of a divine assignment. Marriage is not just lived on their terms but on the terms of God, who is the covenant witness and judge in the marriage union.
Each couples live their lives following a particular road map created by the creator. That means there is a supervisory role performed by God.
The husband cannot just do whatever he likes to do, neither can the wife do whatever she likes or wishes in the marriage.
There are guiding principles, guiding both husband and wife. There is a race set before each one to run, and each one runs with passion looking to God for grace to accomplish his/her race.
Here, the wife is protected as well or as much as the husband is protected too. Both husband and wife have a common father who protects their interest.
It is not based on human standards that the rights of the husband is protected above the wife. Where the woman is subjected to servitude. Or in some cultures, where the wife is overly protected above the husband.
Marriage is indeed till death so us part.
May God grant us grace to so His will.
God bless our marriage
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I have an understanding of what marriage is, my home is blessed
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, let the eyes of my understanding be enlightened.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking. Genesis 24:19 (KJV)
Yesterday we looked at how important to it is for wives everywhere to praise their husbands.
We looked at how a little girl danced in honor of King Herod and praised him till he was willing to part with half of his kingdom. When women, praise amazing things happen.
Today, we will be looking at ‘Husbands appreciate your wives’.
To appreciate means to recognize the good qualities of something or someone. Dear husband, your wife is your helper created for you and for your good.
The fuel that keeps wives going and functioning in their calling as helpers is appreciating their efforts and labour of love. Any husband that doesn’t appreciate his wife is stifling the potentials of his wife.
Appreciation comes with a sense of thoughtfulness that allows for gratitude. You become grateful for the little gestures and the big things your wife does.
Every wife is moved to do more or motivated by words. For example, if your wife cooks a meal and you appreciate her, she will remember the appreciation and will want to do better the next time she is cooking. If she is not appreciated, however, the creativity to do more or do better is not there.
If the love language of your wife is words of affirmation, you have to give her big doses of appreciation. Appreciate your wife for her looks, appreciate her for her dress sense, appreciate her being a home keeper, appreciate her for her intuition, appreciate her for her sacrifices, appreciate her for her kindness, for taking care of the children, for believing you, for encouraging you, for being there, for doing the dishes, and the list goes on and on.
One thing about appreciation like praise is that the more you give it, the more you see reasons to give more appreciation. In the same way, the less you show appreciation, the less you will find reasons to show appreciation.
May God grant us the grace to show more appreciation to our wives.
God bless your marriage.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I will show appreciation to my wife
PRAYERS FOR THE DAY Father, teach me how to appreciate my wife better.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life (Proverbs 31:11-12 KJV)
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Appreciate your wife today.
