Today is our wedding anniversary and marriage is on my mind and everything that entails having a marriage, the good, bad and the ugly. Today, my husband and I have been married for 13 years and I have been with him for a total of 23 years. I know firsthand that marriage has its good times as well as it's bad, and that it is not easy to maintain or survive a marriage during the difficult times especially in our society. Surviving my parents divorce and with 13 years of marriage and 23 years of a relationship I must say that I have seen my fair share of the good, bad, and the ugly. I know the only way me and Monte have survived the ebbs and flows of this journey called marriage is because we have a third person in this marriage with us. Marriage has become a negative term in this culture and society. We no longer look at marriage with anticipation and joy, but with fear. People are scared that if they get married then there is the possibility of getting divorced. No, marriage does not guarantee a lifelong relationship, but neither does any relationship. Marriage was designed to be a lifelong relationship, a commitment and a covenant. The only reason it is not is because we have made it that way. We too often look for any easy way out. If we feel unhappy, then just leave. If you feel unfulfilled, then leave. If your husband makes you mad, you can just leave." We live in a fast-food society. We want things easy and we want it now. No way we want to do anything that requires effort. We go into marriage thinking that we will have the perfect little marriage and the perfect little family in the cookie-cutter house and we will never argue and get angry. Wrong! We need to know what we are actually agreeing to. We are agreeing to stay with our spouse when things are the worst they have ever been. When they make you angry and call you names and hurt your feelings. Marriage is not a continuous date. You now get to see the good, the bad, and the ugly. I know first-hand the dangers of weak commitment in marriage. After my husband and I were newly married, we would throw the big "D" and "S" word around. I made choices and decisions that threatened the covenant of my marriage because of my attitude, insecurities, and because I felt as though Yolanda was lost in this relationship. But we had to decide if we wanted to be married and if we did than divorce and separation was not an option; we were then forced to work things out. And working it out has not been an easy road. I have undergone two major surgeries to battle issues with my fertility since we have been together, losing two grandfathers, a father, and an aunt in the span of four years. In between all of this there was job losses which brought on money problems, confusion, miscommunication and interference from unwanted life situations. But through it all I have had to remember that I love him and I vowed to sustain through all of the good and bad times. I know that we could not have remained together without our third cord, our Heavenly Father. I really don't know how in the world people do it without Christ. He has become the center of our home, and we still have days that we could really could hurt each other but with Christ as the umpire we have no choice but to see each other through His eyes. Hence, the key to surviving is seeing marriage and each other through God's eyes, hearing each other with God's ears, lifting each other with God's hands, encouraging each other with God's Words, and loving each other with God's heart. Marriage is about choosing each day, each minute, to honor God with our words and actions, and in turn, we honor our spouses. Marriage was created by God for our good, for the good of our society, and for His plan to be fulfilled. It’s about companionship, pleasure, responsibility, commitment, romance, raising the next generation—the whole package. It’s the most difficult and yet the most fulfilling relationship we experience during our time on earth. And that’s why it’s worth fighting for. Today I want us to encourage your troubled marriages or just marriages in general. That God will bring restoration and healing. I implore you to speak life and death to the issues now affecting the restoration of your marriage, and release the awesome power of God as He works to restore strengthen and heal your marriage. If this thought has been profitable to you, please share with your friends and family. Like or click the social share button or leave a comment in the box below for Pastor Yolanda.
3 Comments
"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding and abundantly all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in." - Ephesians 3:20 This is one of the most popular and most used verses in the Bible. I am guilty of saying it to encourage myself and others, but after studying it more I truly understand how powerful it is. What I have come to understand is that without the power of God woking in you, there is no victory, there is no overcoming. We must understand unless we tap into the true pure power of God we will not have victory. To tap into the true power of God we must understand fully what this power is. When God created us, He not only created us in His image but He breathed His breath in us, He breathed inside of us the Spirit of the Living God and that Spirit brings with it the DUNAMIS or explosive power of God and with that comes the power to bring change in your life. Dunamis is defined as: strength, power, ability; the power for performing miracles; moral power and excellence of soul; the power and influence which belong to riches and wealth; power and resources arising from numbers; power consisting in or resting upon armies, forces, hosts. Now doesn’t that definition describe and define our God? So I want you to really take time to understand this, that when God blew His own breath into our nostrils, He not only breathed in life but He also breathed in His POWER. That means that Dunamis power is within you and me and it’s from God. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is resident in each of us. Often times on this journey of discovery, I long to use all the power that is resident in my body. Yet I'm still learning how to control, ignite and use this incredible gift. This gift of God’s power allows us to go from human to spirit and from spirit to human in an instance. And we must learn how to control this power within. We need to learn how and when to shift from human to spirit. It’s sort of like driving a manual (straight-drive) car. I know when my father taught me how to drive a straight drive he told me to listen to the engine in the car; it will tell you when to shift. And this can be applied here. If we are reading God’s word, praying and listening to the Holy Spirit, we will be instructed on when to shift. Where we have failed is either staying in the Spirit to long or staying in the natural to long. We must be constantly listening for the leading of the Holy Spirit to know when to shift so that we do not burn out the clutch! So we possess this Dunamis power. Why do we not use it? In most cases people are not inclined to consider God to be that deep. We would rather lead simple uneventful lives being content in the mundane. We must realize that we were never created for mundane simple uneventful lives and we cannot become content living in the mundane. We were created in God's image and likeness….God's life or existence is anything but ordinary or mundane. We must stop seeing life through these ordinary eyes and see it from the extraordinary gift that is within us. Only then can we really appreciate and understand the true nature of God. God is amazing and we are amazing too. We have to realize our value and potential. Our value and potential is often times discovered when we get sick and tired of being sick and tired, you discover and realize that you are better than and worth more than your present circumstance and you muster the courage and strength to change your situation. This is when you discover the power within. The study of this passage of scripture changed my life forever. I have the full knowledge that I possess the dunamis power within me to transform my life, my community and my world, and the ultimate purpose of all this is so that God can do exceedingly, abundantly more than I could ask or think so that His power that worketh within me may bring Him all the glory. If this thought has been profitable to you, please share with your friends and family. Like or click the social share button or leave a comment in the box below for Pastor Yolanda. Has anyone ever told you that you would never be "nothing"? That nothing would ever come out of your life. That not one good thing will come from all that you have been through? That because your parents were nothing, you will never amount to anything? I have! I have had those who were family and my deepest confidants to say that I would never be anything. And it cut me deeply and wounded me. But I am so glad that I knew deep in the recess of my soul, when these words that were spewed to wound and destroy me, that my Intelligent Designer has the power to make this nothing into something. I was so determined to not allow these words to take root in my spirit. I suddenly remembered a terminology that I had learned and I researched the word more in depth; it was "ex-nihilo." Ex nihilo is a latin phrase meaning "out of nothing". It often appears in conjunction with the concept of creation. In creation "ex nihilo" means "creation out of nothing". This mean where nothing existed before, something was created by our Creator. It is expressed in Genesis 1:1-4: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. This means that He took a bare and empty substance and made it anew. He took away the void and the darkness and replaced it with light. He saw the potential in the raw material and made something quite glorious from it. People are surely baffled by this theory, "Something can come from nothing". The opening words in the book of beginnings reveal the very character and purpose of God; first He forms and then He fills. God formed the earth and then filled it with plants and animals. God formed the heavens and then filled it with stars and planets. Indeed, He took this same approach when it came to the time to create man, “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and [then] breathed [filled]…his nostrils with the breathe of life” (Genesis 2: 7). God forms and he fills! Hebrews 11:3 states, "By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God's command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen." This is descriptive of what He does with human lives today. We are formless, empty, in darkness with no shape or meaning to life. Powerless, unfulfilled and going nowhere, with despair and sadness permeating from our very being. But God, our Intelligent Designer sees, in His creativity, what we can become; a masterpiece. God can take the broken pieces, the broken dreams and the broken lives that people see as useless nothingness and re-create it into something. Do you believe this truth for yourself? I had to. To be something, to be that purposeful somebody, we need to know that His creative touch is available in our lives. Our Creator has the power to re-form our lives and fill it with glory, power, abundance, favor, provision, love, joy, peace, fruitful relationships and so much more. You see, that His intention for us right from the very foundation of the world was to make something out of nothing! So it doesn't matter what people like my family said to me or like what those close to you have said to you! He sees something in all of us as we all are valuable somethings to Him! I am so thankful that He saw something in me! If this thought has been profitable to you, please share with your friends and family. Like or click the social share button or leave a comment in the box below for Pastor Yolanda.
|
Archives
August 2020
Categories |
Sign up to receive encouraging teachings, updates, emails and
|
|
Copyright © 2024 Yolanda Douthit