Getting God’s Results!
One thing EVERYONE standing for marriage restoration has in common is that we all want God’s results; and according to His written Word; that’s the restoration of our marriages and families, because Malachi 2 makes it very clear that God hates divorce! There can be no doubt of that when we read verses 13 and 14 in the New Living translation, which says em>Here is another thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, weeping and groaning because he pays no attention to your offerings and doesn’t accept them with pleasure. You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship?” I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows. Then verses 15 and 16 go on to say Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth. “For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel. “To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.” And then 1 Peter 3:7 (NLT) leaves no doubt what God thinks when a man leaves and/or divorces his wife, because it says In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered. And the same applies to wives as well, because we know God is not a respecter of people. So if God upholds the covenant of marriage by refusing to receive, bless or honor the offerings, worship and prayers of men and women who leave their faithful spouses; it’s totally reasonable to conclude that God wants marriages to be restored. And God’s desire and will for marriage restoration is further confirmed by what Jesus said in Matthew 19:4-6, which says And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning “made them male and female,’ and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” So when we decide to stand for the restoration of our covenant marriages; we don’t have to wonder or question whether or not that’s God’s will. There are certainly a WHOLE LOT MORE passages of scripture supporting our stand for restoration than the one or two verses continually twisted and perverted to make just about every allowance under the sun for divorce and adultery!
SO, having concluded that God’s result IS the restoration of our marriages, we need to know what it takes to GET God’s results. And Psalm 119:105 provides the most important instructions as we embark on our journey to marriage restoration, because it says Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. So the ONLY way to know how to get to the restoration of our marriages is by relying on the Word of God and DOING what it teaches us to do. But it does us NO good to know or understand what God tells us to do if we aren’t going to DO it! Jesus made that VERY clear in His comparison between a Wise and Foolish Builder in Matthew 7:24-27, which says:
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” And that is further confirmed in Proverbs 3:5-6, which says Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. And we’re promised the same thing in Psalm 37:5-6, which says Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
While it’s not unusual to hear that we have to “trust and obey” if we want to get God’s results as we stand for the restoration of our marriages; including a whole laundry list of dos and don’ts; the one instruction we don’t hear as often as we should, even though it should ALWAYS be our FIRST priority is what Jesus told us in Mark 12:29-30, which says “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'[ Today’s society is so “results oriented” that we often forget that IF we fail to DO the “first thing” FIRST, we can not expect to get the desired result! Order is VERY important to God, so when he says HE HAS TO BE FIRST; that’s just what He means. So when we deviate from that, we can not count on getting HIS results. And if we’re honest, when we consider how much time we think about our spouses and marriage restoration and how much time we think about God and our relationship with Him; comparing the two, God probably comes out on the short end of the stick! And we surely can’t afford that considering the wonderful promise in Psalm 37:4, which says Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. And the way we “delight in the Lord” and “trust and obey” Him as we stand for the restoration of our marriages can be summed up in Matthew 6:33:34, which says But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. So IF we take our eyes off of our marital situations and keep them steadfastly focused on Jesus; if we make our walk and relationship with Him our FIRST priority and we delight in Him (and according to John 1:1-5, when we delight in the Word, we delight in the Lord); trusting and obeying will be a piece of cake…and We will definitely be blessed and encouraged, because we will then get God’s results!