December 31, 2014

12 Days of Fasting & Prayer for Marriages - Day 12


Prayer for The Three Rs in Marriage: Resurrection, Restoration, and Reconciliation
Lord, today I pray for the resurrection, restoration, and reconciliation of marriages. There are some marriages that are dead or dying. Please bring them back to life like only You can. There are some marriages that need restoration. Please build them up, renew, and refresh them. There are some marriages that are ravished by so much hurt, emptiness, bitterness, and unforgiveness, that they are knocking on the door of divorce. If it is Your will, Lord, please break the chains and create a pathway for reconciliation. Help each couple come to You on bended knee, seeking after You and Your heart so that Your spirit will dwell within them and they will look at their spouse and their marriage the way You look at them. Lord, let our love for You help us love each other more deeply and sincerely so that nothing can separate us. A 3-strand cord cannot be broken. Lord, please be the cord that binds each and every one of us together the way You want us to be. I ask and pray all these things in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.


Verse of the Day
But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. (Revelation 2:4 NASB)

Food for Thought
Our marriage was on the rocks. It was literally dying. We were like two ships passing in the night. I prayed and cried, then prayed and cried some more. I was in ministry. I tithed. I was trying to be a good wife and parent. But something seemed to be throwing a monkey wrench in MY plans for a happy home.

Me!

I was puffed up with pride. "Perfect Patty", if you will. Everyone was doing wrong but me and I needed Jesus to fix their mess so things could get back to the way I wanted them to be. I had some unrealistic expectations about the way things should be and I had become that clanging cymbal that no husband wants to hear.

It was all about me and what I wanted.

But then I remembered when I first fell in love with my husband. I saw a godly man who would make me an honorable woman and the two of us would live in wedded bliss. We would be an example of a marriage that would glorify the Lord. Christ would always be in the center of it all.

Then reality set in.

It wasn't all roses like I thought it would be. It was hard work! We both brought an enormous amount of baggage into our marriage.  We both had been married before. We brought the baggage of divorce. That alone was a doozy! I didn't like what I saw so instead of trusting the Lord with my marriage and circumstances, I tried to be like Olivia Pope on Scandal and "fix" it myself.

What a disaster!

I guess one day, The Lord said He'd had enough of our shenanigans and me trying to do His job so he allowed my world to come crumbling down around me. First, our finances went way south. With that came the drinking and late nights. Then we separated, not once, but three times!  I was done.  This was not a revolving door.  I wanted off the merry-go-round.  I was told I was an enabler and until I learned to stand firm and trust the Lord with my husband and our marriage, the cycle would continue. 

We were separated for what seemed like a lifetime. But in the midst of it, I believe we learned a lot about ourselves and where we went wrong. The main thing is we forgot whose we were and we forgot to make the Lord a priority in our lives. Our expectations for fulfillment were placed on each other instead of our source...Jesus Christ. When we took our eyes off each other, our faults and our shortcomings and fixed our eyes on the Lord, things began to fall into place like never before. You know how we knew it was God? Because the way things came to us were nothing short of a miracle! It's too much to write here, but just know that I'm a living witness of the supernatural power of The Lord working in my life. It was nothing but Him that could've resurrected, restored, and reconciled our marriage into what it is today.  Of course, we're still a work in progress. But I promise you, I can tell the difference from where we were years ago. We both can and we are loving the way the Lord has worked things out when we allowed Him to be our first love and our number one source.

Are you willing to make God a priority in your life and trust Him for your marriage?

I pray these 12 days of Prayers for marriage have been as much a blessing to you as it has been for me. Wishing you and Yours a blessed and prosperous new year!



No comments: