The Source of our Power and the Weapon of our Warfare
Every day, often many times a day, I thank God for the wonderful Christian men and women He has sent to FAM Ministries and for the fellowship and love we have one for another. We are also truly blessed by the wisdom and talents of many of our members as well! The following “Reflection from Dan”, which he recently posted on the men’s private site, is a very good example of that and totally confirms the following verses just to mention a few:
John 15:5
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
John 1:1-4
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
Deuteronomy 8:3
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
Psalm 1119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
Matthew 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Deuteronomy 31:8
The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
1 Peter 4:11
If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Corinthians 1:17
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
The above verses of scripture reveal some very powerful principles for all of us to keep in mind as we stand for the restoration of our marriages and offer and receive words of encouragement and support for and from others, so be blessed and encouraged by Dan’s reflections and prayer, and my response as follows!
Reflecting on our chat Friday night and the sermons I have heard this weekend, I have done some pondering – which sometimes gets me into trouble. For what it is worth, I would like to share my ponderances. (Obviously a made up word!)
As we stand for our marriages it is important to give support and encouragement to others and to receive it from others who understand our situations. God blesses me everyday with the individual posts on this site. This Friday night’s chat, like most of the chats, was an assurance that standing for my marriage is what God’s plan is for me. However, my point today is, using a quote I heard on TV this morning, we have to be able to nurture ourselves because if we wait on someone else to feed us we may die!! We have to believe that God will restore and heal our marriages. The encouragement and support of others will never be enough if we don’t trust and believe what God tells us in His Word.
We can do that by reading and understanding the Word of God. If we use the Bible as the guide we will know what God’s plan is for us and we can trust Him to guide and direct us according to His plan. By putting our dependence on others to lift us and keep us going, we do not truly believe God for His faithfulness. So, although encouragement and support from others can certainly be a blessing to us, everything we need comes from God and His Word. Others may not always be available to us when we need them most but God is always there and will never forsake or leave us. We also will not receive advice that is not rooted in His Word.
I guess some of this stems from a correspondence last week that made me stop and think about what I was sharing with others and what was being shared with me. It can be scary the influences people can have over us that are not from God. I don’t think I am paranoid but the enemy will use anything and anyone to attack us. So I had to really step back and check to make sure my thoughts and actions are anchored in the Lord.
Bless you all for the inspiration that you are to me.
Lord, I pray and lift up this group of wonderful people who are willing to support and encourage each other in our marriage situations. Use the words that are shared to reinforce what You speak about marriage and may we closely anchor our words with the truth from the scriptures. Father help us to have a deeper understanding of Your Word and a growing intimacy with You so that we can totally and undeniably surrender every thought and action over to You. Continue to use each of us according to Your plans that we may glorify and honor You in the words that we speak to others. Help us to band together in mutual agreement that You are a God of restoration and healing and that the enemy will not destroy what You have brought together. My sincere prayer is that each of us and our spouses will have victory in You and that will be the ultimate way that we can glorify and honor You by sharing our powerful testimonies. In the Name of Jesus, Amen
Dan, thank you so much for reminding us that ALL of our hope and expectancy HAS to come from the Lord, and HIM alone (1 Timothy4:10! We can not rely on man to meet our needs or to hold us up. As you have said, those we depend on won’t always be around when we need them, especially after our marriages are restored. So we MUST develop total dependence on the Lord. And how right you are that EVERYTHING we take into our hearts, minds and spirits has to come from the Word of God. The Bible tells us to guard our ear gates and our eye gates, and that’s just because of what you experienced. Satan will rarely come to us in his true colors and in an obvious form. Instead he usually sends us distractions and temptations in the form of something that takes advantage of our good and God glorifying qualities. Just like the Lord can turn ALL things to good (Romans 8:28), Satan can twist and pervert just about anything for his wicked and destructive purposes (John 10:10). So we must always be alert, because he is prowling around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8)! The Bible warns us not to take the counsel of the Ungodly (Psalm 1:1), so we do need to limit and restrict even the encouragement and support we
receive to those who will keep it firmly grounded in the written Word of God. That’s
the source of our power (Hebrews 1:3)and the weapon of our warfare (2 Corinthians 10:4-5 and Ephesians 6:17)! So thank you for sharing your
wisdom and “ponderances”! And, as you are probably not too surprised to hear, I will
be sharing it in SOF too!