God’s Plan Won’t Work Unless We Work His Plan
One of the saddest things I’ve observed while ministering to women standing for marriage restoration is the tendency we all have to expect God to follow through on every one of His awesome promises even when we ourselves are not doing our part according to what His word teaches. None of us would choose an architect to design and provide the plans and blueprints for our dream home, and realistically expect to end up with the home of our dreams without building it according to the plans and blueprints provided by the architect. Yet, that’s exactly what we tend to do as Christians, especially as women standing for the restoration of our marriages. We dream and pray for a glorious marriage restoration, which we know enough of God’s word to understand He promised to deliver, but we don’t seem to think it’s important for us to study the plans and blueprints He provided to insure that our dreams are built according to THE plan. Even though this is such a simple illustration, I hope and pray it will be powerful enough to make the point that we can NOT expect to see the realization of our restored marriages and the salvation and deliverance of our husbands without knowing, understanding and following the very clear and precise instructions God gives us in His word, which is the blueprint He provided for building our dream homes.
When we try to build our restored marriages and the homes of our dreams on ANYTHING other than the rock of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible, we will be terribly disappointed because we will be like the foolish builders Jesus told us about in the parable of The Wise and Foolish Builders, as we see in Matthew 7:24-29, which says:
24 “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.
25 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.
26 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.
27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,
29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Since it is my most heartfelt desire and prayer that everyone visiting this site and participating in FAM Ministries on any level WILL build their lives and restored marriages on THE ROCK of Jesus Christ, which the above verses make pretty clear means hearing the words of Christ and putting them into practice, it occurs to me that it might be necessary to focus more attention on HOW to study and understand the word of God. Perhaps we know WHAT to do, but don’t know HOW to do it, so I hope the following links to messages from Beth Moore on the Life Today program with James and Betty Robison will be a good start to a better understanding of how to approach God’s word and begin the process of building our homes and marriages according to the awesome plans and blueprints the Lord provided for them!
Approaching God’s Word, Part 1, 02/22/06
Approaching God’s Word, Part 2, 03/01/06
Approaching God’s Word, Part 3, 03/08/06
And here’s a link to the Life Today Archives, where you can access transcripts and download MP3 files for these and many other programs.
I learned an awful lot from Beth by listening to the above messages. In fact, I’ve listened to them several times, so I hope everyone will take the time to listen to them AND be blessed by them as I was. They could change how you approach reading and studying the Bible, and that may be what it takes to begin building your life and marriage on THE ROCK so you can withstand the storms of life and attacks of the devil, especially as you stand for the restoration of your marriages.