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“Now faith is
being sure of what we
hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1 NIV)
In building a
stable home, faith is
indispensable. It works with hope and love in building a stable home. At
times
there may be obstacles to hope and love but when faith joins them, the
three
work together to remove the obstacles. Jesus says, “Everything is
possible for him who believes” (Mark 9:23).
The original
blueprint of God for
marriage is that marriage should be perfect and that each home should be
heaven
on earth. But Satan came in to corrupt marriage through disobedience of
the
first husband and wife. Sin opened doors for a lot of vices hence
many problems come into family unnoticed. Such vices and problems are:
selfishness, pride, cheating, infidelity, manipulation, hatred, cruelty,
unforgiving spirit, barrenness, distress, poverty etc.
The entire
above make a home to be
hell on earth and this is a direct opposite of God’s design for
marriage. This
results to high rate of divorce. In fact, greater percentage of existing
marriages can better be described as ‘Marriages in Distress’.
Hope for Hopeless Couples
Is there any
hope for those whose
marriages have failed and those whose marriages are at the threshold of
failure? My answer is Yes, there is hope for them provided they can
believe in
God, the Author of marriage. He has never failed. With God all things
are
possible and for him who believes in God of possibilities, everything is
possible.
The starting
point is to know the Lord
of possibilities. The knowledge of God opens a sure door to
possibilities. It
opens our eyes to comprehend the unlimited power that we have to
overcome all
our marital problems.
Secondly, we
must come to God of
possibilities through Christ for He says, “I am the way and the
truth and
the life. No-one comes to the father except through me” (John
14:6). We
are advised to pray to God in Jesus name only. Jesus is the only
Mediator
between us and God. He has paid the supreme price for us to have access
to God
of possibilities. He had bruised the head of Satan for us. Hence, the
power of
Satan over family had been broken.
Thirdly, we
must believe that our
matrimonial problems will be removed by God. This will give us a total
conviction to bring our family problems to God in prayer and we will
remain
with Him until the problems disappear. Any other means can only give a
temporary
relief because no one understands the problems of marriage except God
who is
the Author of marriage.
If marital
problems are to disappear,
we must take the following actions.
- We must
examine the problems in order to know
if we are the cause of the problems. If we are the cause, we must
confess
our sins, forsake them and turn unto God.
- We must be ready to make
restitution and
reconciliation.
- We must allow love and the
Word of God to
reign in our family.
On the other
hand, if the problems are
caused by forces of darkness, we have been given the power to overcome
them. We
have the authority to bind and cast demons out of our families. The
husband and
wife can agree together to send out demons and wicked spirits out of
their
family provided they are truly one and pray prayer of agreement.
While waiting
for God to remove the
problems, they need to be patient with each other. They should not allow
their
love to each other be affected by the problem. They should go for
counselling.
At times, 75% of marital problems could be solved through counselling,
while
the remaining 25% are to be solved through prayer.
One day, a man
came to me for
counselling. He narrated the problems that have been persistent in his
family
for years. As he was talking, God revealed the source of the problems to
me. I
told him the source as revealed to me. I then prayed for the family.
This man
came to me few days later that the problems had been resolved. To God be
the
glory.
Furthermore,
husband and wife should
not have divorce as a possible option in case unresolved problems arise
in
their marriage. Divorce option always weakens the will power to
resolutely
pursue final solution to marital problems.
The note of
warning I will like to
sound here is that divorce is a poisonous pill designed by Satan to give
temporary relief to distressed couples. As soon as this pill is
swallowed and
divorce is accomplished, each party will now face the agony and the
reality of
living without the other party. The bitter truth is that most of the
time, the new man or woman that replaces the divorced spouse turns
out to be worse than the divorced spouse. At this point, reconciliation
with
the former spouse might be impossible because of developments that have
taken
place after the divorce.
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