There are pressures everywhere. There are pressures that often attempt to take pleasure out of our relationships.
Let’s take a look at some pressures in the area of relationships and how to handle them.
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; – 2Co 4:8 KJV
1. Sexual attraction
Physical attraction which often leads to sexual attraction can constitute so much pressure. Her possession of all the right statistics, the lips, tips and hips, or his good-looking appearance, height, muscles and riches should not captivate your mind to the point of getting you love-sick with unnecessary pressure.
The truth is that you can actually be in control (just as you have to be), get to know the person well before entering a relationship.
Don’t put yourself under any pressure over somebody you met a few hours ago. You cannot fall in love with someone you don’t know!
The pressure of sexual attraction also plays out itself in extra-marital and adulterous scenarios. You cannot bow under that pressure for any reason, even if you have to be thrown into furnace of fire like the three Hebrew boys where you are being threatened of losing some job or contract.
You should not sleep with your boss in order to keep your job! When you do that, you might think you have sustained your job or some promotions, but I can assure you that you would also have sustained havocs in your life and family and it will all culminate in regrets.
Why? It is not God’s order of doing things. Your body is not for all and sundry, it is not a tool to get what you want; it is the temple of God!
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I am filled with God’s wisdom to rule my house.
PRAYERS FOR THE DAY Lord, strengthen me in Jesus name.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Eph 5:23 MSG The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing.
Valentine’s Wisdom For Married Couples. There are so many stories about who valentine actually was. Here is one of the prominent stories.
He was a Roman priest during the 3rd century A.D. Emperor Claudius II was the king at the time. He decided to ban marriage, because of the notion that unmarried soldiers fought better than married soldiers. Valentine secretly officiated marriages. He was eventually found out, arrested, and imprisoned. He was then beheaded and he became a martyr by the Church because he gave up his life to perform the institution of marriage.
By the 5th Century, Pope Gelasius declared the 14th of February to be Valentine’s day!
Well, today is no longer a sacred day as it were! In the lives of some ladies, today would probably be the saddest day of their lives. To some others, it would be the day they would be introduced into the world of sexual compromise! A lot more have penciled today down today as the day they would desecrate the one they profess they love.
Did you miss out on yesterday’s devotional, we’ve got you covered kindly go HERE. For KHC video Devotionals kindly go HERE
Here are a few words for married couples
1. Be faithful with your spouse today. Do not cheat on him or her.
2. If you have quarrels, today is an opportunity to settle such quarrels. Take him or her out! Apologize, stay humble, and don’t flare up on a day like this.
3. Don’t hide under spirituality. Get something for each other on a day like this. Exchange gifts; not just husbands giving to wives but both ways.
4. If your spouse has traveled for any reason, stay in communication and resist any kind of pressure to compromise!
5. End every strife and stay away from bitterness. If you have been sexually depriving yourselves, try and make up today. Make her happy first, go back to the days you met her. What are those things you did that made her say “yes?” Those are the things to replicate and you will be amazed. Find out his or her love language and speak that language. Your goal is not to get what you want, but to make your spouse happy!
6. Decide to be joyful. Avoid strife. Refuse to be depressed on a day like this. Rather, use the pain you feel to talk to God to move on your behalf.
Tonight, we have Valentine’s dinner for Couples! More details HERE
CONFESSION OF THE DAY I seek to understand my spouse
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord I receive grace to understand my spouse more
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 1Pe 3:8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous
In today’sdevotional, we’ll be looking at the topic “Some Lies every married couple should avoid”. Let’s delve right into it
1. As a wife, looks don’tmatter Most wives with these erroneous beliefs and attitudes have had themselves to blame later. Once you are married, all other women out there don’t become ugly and your husband doesn’t become blind. Yes, the husband should look once and move on. But wives too should help your husband by taking care of themselves.
Men are moved by sight. Be feminine. God is not against making your hair, using cologne, and make-up. Watch what you eat. If you are already gaining weight and your husband is beginning to complain, it’s time to reduce your food intake.
2. Marriage is a necessary evil. I’m in it for my children. People with bitter experiences would say this. But another man’s experience does not have to be your own experience, and you don’t have to believe it.
Even though one of the reasons for marriage is procreation, it is not solely for that. Marriage is far more than childbearing and rearing.
3. I can be untruthful and deceptive; it’s all part of the game. Marriage is not a game. It’s a covenant that requires absolute truthfulness. It is “naked and not ashamed.” Naked means no mask, no dress, nothing covering your nakedness. It means what any other person cannot see, your spouse will. That includes your thoughts, past, present, and every in between.
Unfortunately, the world is making nudity a public show. Scanty dresses and little respect for the body only in marriage. Little wonder, there is so much fornication and adultery.
4. I don’t have to tell my spouse everything Some married couples still believe there is wisdom in not telling their spouse everything. Well, maybe the wisdom of this world that is sensual. But the wisdom that is from above, God’s own wisdom, teaches us to be open and tell our spouses everything.
Don’t make any investment without telling your spouse. Don’t buy a house, land, or give out any money without the knowledge of your spouse.
5. There is no fun in marriage as it is boring and full of pressures. Marriage might come with its pressures. Life itself comes with pressures. For the believers, God has promised us a way of escape. He told us He has overcome the world with its pressures.
There is all that is needed for fun and excitement inside marriage. You have to discover how to get the fun out of it. It’s a lie of this age that you have to go outside of your marriage to catch fun. Don’t fall for it.
God bless your marriage.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I learn the truth from God’s word about marriage
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, teach me your way
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness (Proverbs 8:17-18 KJV)
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Avoid all these erroneous beliefs about marriage
Yesterday, we considered a few things to note about pressures.
We discussed that;
1. Pressures come to everybody 2. Nobody can put pressures on you unless you allow that person.
Let’s conclude this morning.
3. You can stop the pressures when you want to When you really want to stop the pressures, you simply stop seeing the person in question. You press the ‘disconnect’ button. You stop picking his or her call. You see, the moment communication lines are kept open; the pressures would keep coming! You say somebody is putting pressure on you and yet you are ‘flashing’ the person with your phone? Who is really putting the pressures?
4. Be sincere with yourself. Do you really want to stop the pressures or are you enjoying it? If you want to stop it, you won’t be like Samson, rather you will follow the example of Joseph.
What was the difference?
Joseph ran away at the face of sexual pressures. Samson thought he could handle the pressures, but he lost his life eventually. Look at what Delilah did to Samson:
And it came to pass, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death; (Judges 16:16 KJV)
That is what I call pressure! But he didn’t run away. He thought he could handle it. He was wrong.
Joseph was pressured too! Look at the scriptures:
She pestered him day after day after day, but he stood his ground. He refused to go to bed with her. (Genesis 39:10 Message)
He stood his ground, and eventually ran away! That is what you do at the face of pressures. Run! Don’t bother to speak in tongues or spiritualize it, just run away!
Are there people around you that you need to run away from? Are there some Delilahs, some Amnons and some Mrs Potiphars? Wicked men? Evil men? Strange women? Liars? Impostors? Deceivers? Manipulators? Think about it! You have a responsibility to protect your life and destiny by the decisions you make and the people you give access to! Selah!
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I am not under undue pressures. I have liberty in God.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Ask God to give you strength to handle pressures.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me:and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.(Genesis 39:12 KJV)
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Disconnect from people putting pressures on you
Pressures can come from different sources. Pressures can come from the devil, they can come from your friends, they can come from your environment, and they can come from within you.
Here are a few things to note about pressures.
1. Pressures come to everybody Everybody experiences one form of pressure at one point or the other. From the pews to the pulpit, from the laity to the clergy, from the janitor to the archbishop, from the person that got born again yesterday, to the one that has been in the faith for twenty years! As long as you are human, you will experience one form of pressure or the other.
The fact that pressures come to everybody is also an indication that tells you that you are not in that alone. There are no custom made pressures, and there is no pressure that you are facing that somebody, somewhere has not faced before.
Here is the scripture:
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13 KJV)
Even Jesus Christ had pressures! That is why the Bible says
We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all––all but the sin. (Hebrews 4:15 Message)
2. Nobody can put pressures on you unless you allow that person. Everybody that is putting pressures on you, be it sexual, physical or mental, you have allowed them one way or the other.One of the greatest gifts that God has given you is the gift of time. 24 hours that you live yesterday was time spent, but it was also a portion of your life that can’t be relived again. Those hours are gone into oblivion. The question is who have you given access to in your life, directly or indirectly?
Anybody you spend time with and listen to, you have just given them access into your life and permission to carry out whatever ulterior motives they had.
The moment you spend time with that unbeliever, you have just given him access to put pressures on you. The moment you go out on date with your boss who is married, you have just given him access to put pressure on you. The moment you report your spouse to your colleague or your boss at work, you have just given him or her permission to put pressures on you! The moment you keep spending time with that fellow all in the name of being taught tutorials, you have just given such a person access into your life.
I will show you more ways to handle pressures tomorrow.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I am not under undue pressures. I have liberty in God.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Ask God to give you strength to say NO at the right times.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me:and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.(Genesis 39:12 KJV)
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Disconnect from people putting pressures on you
