My dear and most especially, God’s dearest, I bring you a word from the Lord this morning!
Single or married, this word is for you! Please pay attention to the words and take heed of them.
Let’s dive into it!
Psa 95:8-11 (MSG) “Don’t turn a deaf ear as in the Bitter Uprising, As on the day of the Wilderness Test, [9] when your ancestors turned and put me to the test. [10] For forty years they watched me at work among them, as over and over they tried my patience. And I was provoked—oh, was I provoked! ‘Can’t they keep their minds on God for five minutes? Do they simply refuse to walk down my road?’ [11] Exasperated, I exploded, ‘They’ll never get where they’re headed, never be able to sit down and rest.’
Many people, rather than cooperate with God, are putting God to the test, trying His patience and provoking Him with their carelessness and insensitivity!
Thank God He is a merciful God, full of loving kindness and tender mercies!
That is our saving grace!
However, we cannot continue to test His patience and behave like stubborn little kids!
God wants you to keep your mind on Him!
Regarding every decision you make, who to marry, loving the one you have married, staying faithful, avoiding bickering and strife, and so on, God wants you to keep your mind on Him! When your mind is on Him, you will behave!
The punishment for the Israelites in the above text is non-arrival! Their dreams were never fulfilled! They worked tirelessly and struggled with nothing to show at the end of the day! They wandered and meandered and yet never reached their destination!
These will not be our portion!
The scripture made it clear these things were written to serve as our examples! We must not repeat the same mistakes!
Dear singles and couples, decide to cooperate with your maker! Decide to listen to His word and His Instructions. Decide to live for Him and you will find all things working together for your good!
God the Present Help in your Relationship and Marriage
God’s word is powerful enough to be trusted. The word from His mouth will never go back to Him void but will accomplish what it says it would.
If you are a child of God, take refuge in His word and promises.
Whatever the issue or challenge is with your relationship trust God. He is the very present help in times of trouble. You will testify to His faithfulness. ( So far as the perfect will of God is known)
Maybe you are having issues with parental consent. Maybe it is the finances for the wedding that is the issue. Maybe it’s a misunderstanding that has been lingering for long. Maybe it’s peer pressure or listening to the wrong advice.
I want to encourage you this morning. Take hold of God’s word.
If you can have it in the word, you can have it in your world.
That marriage will not end in separation or divorce. The dry bones of that marriage will rise again. Finances will flow again. You will enjoy marital bliss once again. Or if you do not know what it is to enjoy bliss, God’s word will manufacture it.
Isaiah 41:18 GNT I will make rivers flow among barren hills and springs of water run in the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water and the dry land into flowing springs.
God’s word promises restoration. God promises to make rivers flow among barren hills. He will turn the desert into pools of water and dry lands flowing springs.
What a wonderful promise to hold on to.
Whatever looks like dryness in your relationship and marriage, in your finances, or business, God promises to turn it around.
The issues you face in your relationship and marriage are not meant to break you. They are there to make you stronger.
Jesus told Peter, when thou art converted strengthen your brothers.
Whatever you are dealing with right now is only for an appointed time. Its season will soon come to pass. Then you will be furnished to strengthen your brethren.
Fight the good fight of faith. After it all, we are still standing.
God’s word is a sure foundation to stand upon.
Don’t give up, believe His word and it will happen for you in your relationship and marriage.
Taking Care Of Your Lover/Spouse Okay, so you are in love. Butterflies are flying in the tummy, your heartbeat accelerates, and there are twinkling little stars on your face. How do you take care of each other? Or you are married, somehow the butterflies have decided to rest, the heartbeat is stable and the stars have hibernated. How do you take care of each other or probably rekindle this love?
Here are some ideas for singles and married couples.
1. Communication Stay in touch. Words are powerful; use them to your advantage. As singles, don’t let your courtship season be a memory of fights, quarrels, and arguments. Be mature with each other. Avoid being incommunicado.
Make it a rule; we must keep talking. That can also be a powerful principle to live by as a married couple. The devil feasts on silence; assumptions will persist and complicate the issue because assumptions are the lowest form of knowledge.
What is a man looking for? Respect! What is a lady looking for? Love! If you learn to communicate this, there will be less tension!
Singles should however note that it is wrong to say you are showing respect while you are disobeying God’s injunctions! More aptly put, you are not showing respect to your fiance by cooperating with him when he asks for pre-marital sex.
2. Spirituals Oh, pastor, what has this got to do with being romantic? It’s got a lot to do! Somebody said, to be romantic, read the book of Romans! Your spiritual life as single or married can determine the success of your relationship or marriage. There are two elements to your spiritual life: reading God’s word (which also includes study and meditation) and praying to God. If you can make this regular and consistent, some order will enter your relationship/marriage.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. (Genesis 2:24 KJV)
Here, we see God giving an instruction once marriage is in view. There must be “leaving” and a “cleaving” before any marriage can be successful.
A lot of people leave without cleaving. It won’t work. A lot more try to cleave without leaving. It won’t work either.
It has to be a “leaving” and a “cleaving.”
The word “leaving” is very interesting. There are two particular words or meanings I am interested in. They are the words ‘relinquish” and “commit self”
Pastor, you mean I must relinquish relationship with my parents? It doesn’t mean you disconnect from them or cut off from them, it only talks about where your focus should now be as a married person. After God, the next most important person in your life is your spouse. It doesn’t mean you should not take care of your parents any longer, it just means there should be more emphasis on your spouse.
And then the word “commitment!” Leaving to cleave involves commitment! A person that goes into a relationship or marriage without the willingness to commit to the relationship is just playing around. You need to pray as a single that your path will not cross with such people because they would waste your time, energy and resources. Yorubas call such people “alawin”
It is not God’s concept to have several people on your list that you are dating at a time. If God wanted some form of double dating or polygamy, He would have created Eve, Eva and Evelyn for Adam. Remember Adam still had ribs remaining!
But God created only one person upon whom Adam should focus on. And that is the biblical standard! In that one person is packaged everything you need to be complete. Couples who constantly fight and quarrel are missing out a lot because they are never complete that way. Their agreement would be broken and prayer would be hindered.
Some people are deeply spiritual. So spiritual they probably wanted God to help them propose or answer a proposal. Well, it is not as complicated.
And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. (Genesis 2:22 KJV)
What God will do is that He will present you with opportunities and guidance, but He will always allow you to make up your mind. That is why the scriptures says:
Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord. (Proverbs 18:22 KJV)
Whoso findeth… this is talking to men. Men are the ones that do the finding, not the ladies.
Right now, look around you. Your friends, church folks, classmates, relationships around you, those are all the people God has presented to you. You are to prayerfully choose once you are at a marriageable age. You are to be led by God’s Spirit, because when you ask Him, He will lead you and you won’t have to be proposing to several people. God still leads. You don’t need to have a dream or vision or hear a voice, it could just be inner witness or even circumstantial leading.
I am very certain that God’s design for a good relationship is not to start having boyfriends or girlfriends all over the place and be toying with your emotions in experimental relationships. God certainly wants to lead, if you allow Him.
And do you know one thing? God will not lead you wrong!
Now to the couples. If you are already married, presentation opportunities are over. Stay with your spouse and enjoy the wife of your youth, the scripture advises. Focus on God and then on your spouse. That is the secret to a successful marriage.
You can only admire people after your wedding, you should not desire them. In other to enjoy God’s blessings and favour maximally, you will need to focus on your spouse with all your heart! After God, the next person is your spouse!
