Reflecting on last Friday night’s chat and some additional studies by Bayless Conley, I want to stress the importance of relying on the promises God gives us.

How important is it to have a promise? Bayless Conley states that it is everything, because without a promise, there is no faith. God’s promises both create faith and sustain the human heart. Romans 4:18 says that Abraham believed, according to what was spoken. He didn’t believe according to the circumstances surrounding him, how he felt, popular opinion or past failures. His faith was founded on and fueled by God’s promise.

Therefore, we must discover God’s promises concerning the restoration of our marriages and believe them. There are many and I’ve included some of them below. So we must keep looking to them and God as they will both create and sustain our faith as we wait for God to carry them out.

So we have to spend time in God’s Word, the Bible, to know His promises, because that’s how we develop and maintains strong and vibrant faith. Reading the scriptures will put the promises in our heads, and meditating on them will put them in our hearts. Here’s a true story that Bayless tells that really makes that point:

“I have a friend who at one point in his life was a thief and a heroin addict. He had pretty much destroyed his own life, as well as his marriage. He eventually ended up in a Teen Challenge program where he gave his heart to Christ and was set free from his drug addictions.

He hadn’t seen his wife in some time, knowing only that she was in trouble with the law. He began to earnestly pray for her salvation while diligently reading his Bible. One night he came upon a promise Jesus made that literally seemed to jump off the page of his Bible. God was speaking deeply to him and it became a very present-tense word to his heart. The promise was found in Mark 11:24 – “therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

He immediately got down on his knees and prayed that his wife would be saved and that their marriage would be restored. About the time he finished his prayer it was time for the guys in his group to get together for devotions.

When the leader asked if anyone had a testimony, my friend raised his hand and began to share, “My wife is saved and we are getting back together.” Everyone began clapping. One asked, “When did you get the good news?” “I got it tonight,” my friend responded. The others went on to ask if it was a phone call or perhaps a letter. “No, I got it right here,” my friend said and held up the Bible and read Mark 11:24 to them!

Everyone’s enthusiasm immediately died. But he persisted, “It says that whatever I ask for when I pray, to believe that I receive it and I will get it, and I did that!” Every night during devotions he would testify the same thing. They all thought he was crazy until a few weeks later when a judge released his wife into his custody (which was miraculous considering the fact that she was facing felony charges for forgery and his arrest record was a mile long). Standing before the judge with his tattoos and his cap on backwards, he shared the testimony of his salvation and God touched the judge’s heart. It wasn’t long before his wife was free and, as of today, they have served the Lord for many years in full-time ministry.”

God’s written Word definitely contains PROMISES for us as we stand for the restoration of our marriages. So read them. Meditate on them. Believe them. He will do what He says He will do!

There is nothing more important to our faith than knowing that God has made certain promises to us and that He WILL BE faithful to keep them. Like many who followed Jesus and persistently chased after Him for healing, believing that He would; we must seek after Jesus. We must fall at His feet and cry out for help, and our faith in Him will release His supernatural power into our lives; just as it did for those the Bible tells us about. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. So in the Name of Jesus, we must claim His promises for us and our marriages and families.

Promises to Answer our Prayers:

Philippians 4:6 (NLT)
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

Jeremiah 33:3 (NLT)
Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come.

1 John 5:14-15 (NLT)
And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.

Mark 11:24 (NLT)
I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.

Matthew 21:22 (NLT)
You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.”

Matthew 18:19 (NLT)
“I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you.

Psalm 37:3-4 (NLT)
Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.

Numbers 23:19 (NLT)
God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?

Promises of Upholding the Covenant of Marriage:

Hebrews 13:4 (NIV)
Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

Romans 7:1-3 (NIV)
Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to men who know the law—that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.

Malachi 2:13-15 (NIV)
Another thing you do: You flood the LORD’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. [a] So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

Malachi 2:15-17 (NIV)
Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. [a] So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. “I hate divorce,” says the LORD God of Israel, “and I hate a man’s covering himself [b] with violence as well as with his garment,” says the LORD Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith. You have wearied the LORD with your words.
“How have we wearied him?” you ask.
By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of justice?”

Matthew 5:31-33 (NIV)
Divorce
“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.'[a] But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.
Oaths
“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’

Matthew 19:2-6 (NIV)

Matthew 19:7-10 (NIV)
“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.
Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
“What did Moses command you?” he replied.
They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”
“It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.'[a] ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] and the two will become one flesh.'[c] So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”

Luke 16:17-19 (NIV)
It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

1 Corinthians 7:10-16 (NIV)
To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife. To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

1 Corinthians 13 (NLT)
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Posted Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 at 6:54 am in Seeds Of Faith.