It is God’s presence that makes all of the difference and His guidance by His word. Joseph was in the prison, but bible declares that he prospered because he was a carrier of God’s presence.
Carry God along in your marriage and let God carry you on your marital journey.
Marriage is very hard and difficult when you go through marriage in your strength and wisdom.
Here are some tips I learnt from one of my mentors sometimes ago.
1. Giving
Every couple must be willing and ready to give and even sacrifice in their marriage. You must both give your spirit, soul and body. Let nothing be too big or too small to give to your spouse. Let your giving also be constant.
Give your time, attention, affection, your body unhindered to your spouse, money, energy, intellect. Don’t withhold whatsoever you have from your spouse. After God, your marriage comes next.
Your must prioritize your home and spouse above everyone on this earth. Not even your family members. Don’t give to any friend at the expense of your spouse.
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2. Respect
Marriage is about respecting each other. The husband is not to demand respect as the head of the marriage. He earns it by being a servant leader.
The husband should also respect his wife. Respect your wife’s opinions, husbands. The way you show respect to your wife is peculiar to who she is. Respect her as a joint heir together of the promises of God. Respect is reciprocal and respect begat respect. So respect each other.
We will continue tomorrow by God’s grace.
God bless your marriage.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY My marriage will be glorious.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, help me to respect my spouse at all times.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY John 3:16 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.
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Give your spouse a wonderful gift
How To Be Thankful As A Couple. There is so much we can be thankful about especially for those who are married.
We all are to be full of gratitude.
I remember in the early years of our marriage, I just decided to give God thanks and before I know what’s happening, two hours have passed.
We need to be creative with our thanksgiving and be grateful for things we normally overlook and take for granted. God moves in our midst when we are truly grateful and offer Him thanks for those things we see Him doing in our lives.
It is easy to judge those ten lepers in Luke 17:11-19. They were obviously being so ungrateful. This minute they were lepers and the next they were cleansed. If they were thinking, they should have first of all been grateful they were cleansed.
And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
Luke 17:12-14 (KJV)
I guess they became overwhelmed with many other things that needed to be done, the years wasted, the relationships lost, all other things they have lost, etc. They allowed themselves to be overwhelmed in their thoughts and that stole their ability to give thanks to God.
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God is excited when we put Him in remembrance and remember where we are coming from, what we were delivered from and how God saw us through whatever challenges we had.
As couples, let us be grateful for each other. Thanksgiving precedes God’s interventions. If you want to see God’s hands over your home and marriage, thank Him for His fingers. When you are grateful, you bring God on the scene.
You have things you should be grateful for. Don’t take any of the goodness of God for granted. Be thankful and praise His Name.
God bless our marriage.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I am grateful and I praise God for my life and marriage
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, I consciously set my heart to remember you for your goodness.
THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY Psa 6:5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Set out to be creatively grateful for those ‘little things’ God has done.
Every marriage that God instituted is a blessing. It should be viewed as such.
That it is a blessing doesn’t mean it is going to be perfect with no ups and downs. All marriages have their own challenges and we all have to make up our minds to press on and don’t give up.
If we believe it is a gift from God then we need to treat it as such. Treat it with such dignity and honor. Treat your marriage and spouse with respect.
Have respect for marriage. Always be faithful to your partner, because God will punish anyone who is immoral or unfaithful in marriage.
Heb 13:4
It is a special gift from God so have respect for it and treat it with some honor. Part of the respect and honor you give to marriage is being faithful to it as a covenant.
How faithful are you to this gift God gave you? It is a privilege being married and like any gift, you will give an account of how you used it.
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How faithful are you in thoughts, words, and actions? How faithful are you in ensuring you trade with this gift and multiply it? You start out in your marriage being small in every way. By being faithful, you multiply.
Faithfulness is not just limited to being moral and avoiding adultery. It is about being accountable and prudent with it. Like a wise businessman, trade with whatever God has given to you.
Do business and make sure you profit with the spouse God gave you. Till your marriage. Focus on making the most of it. Build your marriage and spouse.
Whatever good you desire and admire in other couples is also available to you. Be ready to work hard with your marriage. God is not promising there won’t be pressure, but don’t give up.
Dave Meyer was faithful in working at staying married to Joyce Meyer. It was very tough initially. It went through a lot of difficult times.
Being faithful is sticking with your partner no matter what. Working at it no matter what it takes. It is such a dogged attitude and a bulldog approach to marriage that God rewards.
Tell yourself and your spouse, we are in this for life and for the long haul.
May God grant us the strength to do His will.
God bless your marriage
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I have a faithful heart. I don’t give up on my it no matter what
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord grant me the grace to keep keeping on in my marriage
THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY Heb 13:4 Have respect for marriage. Always be faithful to your partner, because God will punish anyone who is immoral or unfaithful in marriage.
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Keep tilling the ground of your marriage
Dealing With In-Laws In Marriage. Our parents and the parents of our spouse are very much part of our family. In fact, we should be grateful to them for bringing up our spouse.
No doubt, their sacrifices have contributed to making our spouses who they are. Whether they brought them up well or not is another thing, that God used them to preserve the life of your spouse is enough to be grateful for.
Most times, our parents and in-laws are a blessing. They give advice and help us with babysitting. The question then is how do we deal with their excesses? Grandparents and Grand In-laws are usually less busy with work, so they tend to be busybodies.
When they become a pain in the neck, how do we handle things? When they seem to go out of their boundaries, what do we do? When they become a distraction to us and our marriage, how do we handle them, without hurting them?
When their demands are affecting our finances, what do we do? When our religious beliefs are different and at loggerheads, what do we do? When because they are humans, they tend to come between us and our wife or husband, what do we do? When they want us to do things opposing our conscience, what do we do?
When we have a sick parent-in-law or parent, should we reject and abandon them? When we face pressures from in-laws about responsibilities they put upon our shoulders, what do we do?
Did you miss out on yesterday’s devotional, we’ve got you covered kindly go HERE. For KHC video Devotionals kindly go HERE
All these questions and many others are what we face daily and these affect our marriages in no small way. They affect our relationship with our spouse.
Basically, no two situations are exactly the same. We need wisdom from God to handle these issues. Prayer is very important and relationship with the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that will show us the true picture and give us the solutions we need.
He will tell us the right words at the right time to speak to them. The Holy Spirit will even tell us the right gifts to get.
Here are some wise tips to help you handle in-law issues
1. Know God’s order; it’s your spouse first before the family 2. Don’t hurt the feelings of your spouse because of some in-law 3. Live within your means and budget 4. Have an account for emergencies from which you take care of such needs. 5. Let parents and in-law know that you and your spouse are inseparable and nothing can separate you. 6. Protect and defend yourselves before your in-laws. 7. Love your parents and in-laws but let them know that you have a responsibility to your own family first.
God bless our marriage!
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I live considerably with my in-laws
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, give me wisdom to handle my in-laws
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 1 Corinthians 13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Well, you can know. It is so easy to know but we often close our eyes to the obvious signs. I am going to use myself as an example.
Ours is a typical campus lovebirds story. There are ways I felt and there are things I did.
While these may not be specific things he must do as well, they are just to guide you in actually knowing whether the love is genuine.
1. I wanted to be with her always
More than anything, I wanted to be around her.
Something is not in place when he is not bothered about not seeing you in months.
A lady once told me she is preparing for marriage and yet the husband-to-be had not seen her in two years despite that they were just a few kilometers apart. Well, it turned out that he eventually left her for another person.
2. I felt like I was her protector
We all know God is her protector, but I had that feeling I was responsible for her.
This feeling engendered compassion which in turn informed my actions towards her.
If you have been slapped, be careful. If you have been forcefully violated be careful.
If you have been left in the cold because he was angry not minding your safety, be careful. If you have been massively embarrassed and shouted at in front of friends and families, be careful.
3. I wanted her to be happy
I couldn’t bear the sight of her being moody or downcast.
I would always try to make her laugh, quote scriptures to her about the joy of the Lord and all that.
If he doesn’t care about you being sad and depressed for days as a result of his actions, be careful. Things are not likely to change after the wedding.
If he seems to enjoy you being down and sad, something is wrong somewhere.
If he doesn’t care about you being pregnant again despite the trauma of the abortion you went through, you need to speak to your legs. Abortion is murder, it should not be trivialized.
By the time you have aborted twice, you really need to review your life and get out of that abusive relationship that will lead nowhere.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I make the right choice in God.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, open my eyes to see what I cannot see.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 1 Corinthians 13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
