We are here for God’s Purpose and for HIS glory! by Teresa in Arizona
(Note from Linda: Teresa shared the following post on the private site today and it really is such an important message for everyone standing for marriage restoration! God does NOT want or expect us to be idle as we wait for HIM to work out the restoration of our marriages. And my experience in marriage restoration ministry has shown me repeatedly that the more dedicated we are in preparing ourselves for marriage restoration and understand that our stand is for His purpose and for His glory, the sooner we see Him move SUPERNATURALLY on our behalf! God never expects us to just mark time while we idly wait for a miracle to take place; that brings no glory to the Lord and does nothing to prepare us for the work He has purposed and planned for us. So this is a very powerful testimony and something everyone standing for marriage restoration really needs to take to heart as we consider how it can be applied to our lives. As Rick Warren so famously wrote It’s not about you! And the more we make it about us, the further from marriage restoration we remain. So let’s get up every day and ask God what HE wants us to do for Him and His kingdom that day, and be prepared to be blessed and encouraged as He pours His blessings out in our lives and in the restoration of our marriages!)
Hi FAM Family. I have had a post brewing in me for a couple of days, so I decided to sit down and write it this morning. I was listening to a testimony the other day of a woman who spent the first half of her life in the muck and mire of life. She began using drugs in high school and that continued to the point of losing every job she had. She worked in radio and television, but went to work high every day. She then started a band and her drug use was even too intense for the band and they left her. She also had intense rage in her life, so people would always leave her. She got to the point where she was cooking her drugs and selling them. And then she would do her own collecting when payment wasn’t made, which was a very dangerous thing as she dealt with big time biker gangs. And she ended up in a war with them and they were trying to kill her. And after many arrests over the years, a judge finally said no more bail…you are going to prison. And she was sentenced to thirteen years.
While in her cell the very first night, the Holy Spirit came upon her and she prayed in the Spirit for several hours. As time went on, she began reading the bible and she read it through three times in four months. So she began ministering to the other inmates, which was quite a testimony since she did nothing but fight and cause trouble in the beginning.
She then shared a revelation she had one day, while reading one of our favorite scriptures, which was Jeremiah 29:11. Earlier in that passage, the Lord told the captives to build houses, plant gardens and eat of the fruit; to have families and increase there numbers. And He said to seek the peace of the city where He CAUSED them to be carried away too and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace. What God showed her was that while we are in “captivity” so to speak, he wants us to grow, live, learn and to have peace because He has caused these things for His purpose. He uses these times to prepare us for the purpose He has for us. And she began to rejoice in being imprisoned because she realized this was the training ground for the rest of her life with God. Now she travels all over the world and speaks to thousands of “captives” in prisons. She understood that the “captive” part of her life was so essential for the work God wanted to do in her and through her.
So it is of the utmost importance that we really examine our hearts and ask God to show us our motives for our stand for marriage restoration. Do we want our marriage restored because we are lonely? Or because we feel shamed that we are single or perhaps like failures? Do we want it for financial security, or any kind of security for that matter? The only secure thing in this life is Jesus Christ. And we are where we are for a reason and God wants our motives to be His motives only. Look at how this ministry and others like it are growing. He is raising up a people who will speak His truth in a very relative world. And we are those people. He is commissioning us for His mighty work and we need to be VERY focused and realize that this is our training ground. It does NOT matter what are spouses are doing or not doing; they are God’s responsibility and He is more than capable of handling them. We must focus on our responsibility and learn and be faithfully committed to everything God is asking of us. He knows we will falter at times, but He has all that worked out in His plan and it is all factored in as well. He loves us and is gracious and patient with us. All He wants is for our hearts to be open and willing and He will do the rest. So let’s take the peace that God has for us and look through eyes that are eternal and not temporal.
I love you all so much and praise God for you. In Christ’s love, Teresa
Jeremiah 29:4-14 – This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5″Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.
Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD.
This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”