The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever Isaiah 40:8

In the very beginning of our marriage, my husband and I had the blessing of traveling through a very dark and deep valley together...it was a direct result of a sin that had a hold on my husband, and it blew up in the first three months of our marriage...I had not been prepared for this, and I think my reaction showed it. I'll never forget when I confronted my husband about what I had found, I felt like my heart has been stabbed and my trust in him was just completely shattered. It was as if something inside of me died that day....and it's taken years to be reborn. I had hopes of that first year of marriage being perfect, that "honeymoon" year....and because of sin...those hopes and expectations were completely shattered...lost really, because you can never get time back. I remember going to a friend, seeking comfort and counsel....and getting it because the Lord has put a friend in my life who prioritized God's word and allowed herself to be transformed by it. I could have walked out the door that day on my spouse, I could've said..."I didn't sign up for this, and I don't deserve this" but I stayed, because I fervently believe God's word stands forever. I believe that when I got married, I made a commitment to the Lord, not just to my spouse..he is the earthly beneficiary of my commitment I made that day to the Lord...I come from divorce, and what divorce does to families is beyond words...it rips each person to their core, and it can be a deadly pattern of destruction for generations to come...so I stayed, we sought marriage counseling and it was an ENORMOUS blessing...I went to marriage counseling knowing it was my husband's sin that landed us there, but I left marriage counseling knowing that my sins could potentially put us right back there in the future. I'm thankful that the Lord brought to light that sin, and I can say that He alone has set my husband free from that sin now for close to seven years...to God be the glory..great things He has done!!

All that to say, what my husband and I went through was very real, and very threatening to our marriage...it could have ended there...but it didn't. Now, over the past few years I've had the enormous privilege of ministering to several friends as they've struggled in their marriages....it has blessed my soul. I've shed tears for them, I've cried out to God for them, I've begged God for revival within marriage throughout the world, and He continues to make me keenly aware of the seriousness of marriage and the absolute truth that marriage is a covenant between you, your spouse and our Lord. Today..as I sat in church, I think I just felt like my heart was going to beat right out of my chest. Our teaching Pastor taught on marriage from Malachi 2:10-16, it was amazing..."For I hate divorce,"says the LORD, the God of Israel Malachi 2:16a...this passage that our Pastor taught out of was amazing, so refreshing, I mean I've believed all along that marriage is something God does, and we obey Him by being in it...bu today as our Pastor explained that marriage is worship, and God wants us to be right in our marriages, before we come into His house and worship Him...it was so convicting, refreshing, challenging and encouraging all at the same time. Most of us who call upon the name of Jesus believe that He is who He says He is, and believe His word to be the infallible, inerrant word of God...but I really think we fail to allow God's word to permeate our very existence and rather than truly fixing our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, we fix our eyes upon our situations and think that they are bigger than God. I'm telling you today, they are NOT, there is nothing in the world that is bigger than God, nothing that God can not handle, no one that God Himself, the Creator of the universe can not change. If God can take me, a lost gentile, living in an unbelieving family, an enemy of God, a "self-made" woman, and capture my heart with Christ, change my lineage by staking His claim on me, giving me a husband who loves the Lord, bless me with three amazing boys, allow me to be a stay at home mother, and even then, open doors for me to minister to women who have hurting marriages...then God can absolutely change you.

I have two things to share, "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever Isaiah 40:8

and "For the word of God is LIVING and ACTIVE and SHARPER than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Hebrews 4:12 (emphasis is mine)

Oh, let us...those who name the name of Jesus, who say..."I am a Christian" engulf ourselves in God's word, and cry out to God, pour our hearts out to Him, and beg Him to transform our minds...and beg of Him to give us the strength daily to do the "hard thing" and obey His word and to believe it, believe that God's word is, and both can and will do what it says!

I don't know who reads this...but I do ask...if you do...and if you call upon Jesus as Savior...please join me in crying out to Him for a revival within the church...that His own would be radically transformed by the grace of our Almighty God!