God Can Heal Your Marriage Today!

This morning, as I sit at home on a Sunday with my family, my heart has drifted toward thinking about how many marriages are ending in divorce. How easy it is to just give up, and move on with "your" life while devastating the lives of others, including the spouse that you once madly loved, and the children left in the wake of disaster. I can speak very personally and with great emotion about this topic. I have been on that edge of divorce when everything looks as though it could never be right again...we were "out of love" with one another, and fighting every day. We did not even want to spend time alone together, and my thoughts were filled with anger, bitterness and thoughts of how to leave. He was also trying to find a way out. It was miserable at times, to say the least. I began to pray with all my heart, and many, many tears, that God alone would draw us back together. I prayed that he would rekindle love in my marriage, and that he would turn our hearts back to one another, as we followed Him. I prayed, and prayed, and prayed. I cried, and cried, and cried....and tried so hard not to leave in the meantime every time we had a fight and it just wasn't turning around. But God taught me to be persistent and I had a voice inside of me telling me that somehow, it was going to be better someday. I held on with everything I had, and let God keep me in my marriage when I felt I could not stay any longer. That is when the real bomb dropped on my marriage. I found out there were problems UNDER the surface that were causing much of the distance between us. Out of respect for the intimacy my husband and I have now built, I will not go into details. But there was a current working against us that I could not even see. It took the work of the Holy Spirit in my heart to convince me that something more was going on, and for me to confront my husband about it. When I confronted him, and we talked, tears started to flow as we told each other how we really felt about what was going. There were confessions made, and healing poured into our hearts by God Himself. We forgave each other.

I would love to say it was perfect that day, and every day after, but that is not the case. I continued to boldly pray that God would not only save my marriage, but that he would create a marriage that was fulfilling, loving, and absolutely amazing. God had to work in both our hearts to begin to make that happen. There were many times when I felt I was the only one who was praying, but I don't believe that is probably true. I know that others were praying for our marriage...intercessors, close friends, pastors, and who knows who else God enlisted to help us! After months of solid prayer, the tides began to really change. The Lord had to deal with my heart first because I had been hurt so much in my life, and I did not understand or accept being loved by anyone unconditionally. It took an older, visiting mother of one of our elders who spoke a "word of knowledge" (information about my life she could not have known) that broke me down to tears and revealed the hurt in my heart. God healed the hurt, and we moved forward. Then God had to heal the pain of all the problems that had existed in our marriage. There was a lack of trust, warmth toward my husband, and a condescending judgmental nature about me. The Lord had to work out all these things before he could heal my marriage and give us a fresh start. But I thank the Lord that he works tirelessly when we pray. As I prayed harder, the Lord began to work in bringing my husband's heart back to me. He rejoined us in intimate ways, and we began to want to spend time together. We began talking, laughing, and accepting one another for who we both are. Our marriage is still not perfect, it is a work in progress, but we have peace, love, acceptance and joy in our marriage. We enjoy our children together, and spending time together. We are working on our level of communication and our knowledge of one another, but we are on a positive track.

You may wonder why I chose to tell you the history of my marriage today. This morning I ran across a new movie that is coming out September 26th called "Fireproof." I have not seen this movie yet, but I have watched the trailer, and it addresses lack of understanding "love" within a marriage, and is about a couple who is on the verge of divorce. They are given a book called The Love Dare (which is available to buy online), which is 40 days to learning about God's definition of love in marriage. This movie's theme hit me on a personal level, and I feel as though I should strongly encourage any of you to see it in the theaters. I would love to see it here, and I will be praying that it comes. Many movies never make it to Guam because of the small audience and long distance. There are a couple of websites to check out if you feel led to support this movie, or to find more information about it.

http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/

http://www.fireproofmymarriage.com/

The lead actor in the movie is Kirk Cameron from Growing Pains and Left Behind. This movie comes from the same makers of Facing the Giants and Flywheel. This is their next movie.



God has really put a burden in my heart for marriages, and the high rates of divorce here in Guam. You see, Guam is a place that people from all over the US come to get a divorce because you only have to stay here a short amount of time, and it is inexpensive. People travel to Guam just to get divorced! That is just heart-breaking. I see the impact of divorce on this military community, with many husbands divorcing their military wives on island, and many wives leaving and never coming back to the island. A friend of mine and I were talking the other day about how "out of control" the divorces have become for the base. I KNOW that God can heal marriages because he healed mine. There are just too many reasons why people are not seeking God for his help and healing in marriage.

-They do not know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
-They do not have a local body of Christ to enlist for prayer support and pastoral counseling.
-They are Christians, but do not believe God can heal their marriage, so they do not pray.
-They give themselves excuses or "grounds" for leaving the marriage, but the Bible does not support their grounds.
-They believe it is easier to give up and start over than to fight to have an amazing marriage.

One great piece of wisdom came from my own brother. He said, "In order to stay married, you have to decide that divorce is not an option anymore." He then told me about his own marriage stuggles, and gave me encouragement to go on being married. That really woke me up! He was right. We all need to take the biblical stance that divorce is not an option anymore, and fight for our marriages with prayer, faith, and perserverance.

May God bless your marriage with peace, joy, intimacy and faith today in the name of Jesus. I pray for each of you that your marriage would be based on solid foundation of God's Word, and that you would allow him to be the strength that holds your marriage together in times of trouble.

Psalm 46:1 (NIV)

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."

In Christ's Everlasting Love,

Sarah