What Happens When Our Love Is Tested?
Everyone standing for marriage restoration certainly knows ALL about what happens when love is tested, because we’ve all experienced it as we’ve faced the trials of marital separation and divorce, and maybe even when our spouses’ have remarried. And even though that probably seems like the toughest test of love we’ll ever face, it isn’t; because the most difficult and most significant test of love we ever face is when the love we have for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is tested. And standing for the restoration of our marriages will certainly put the love and faith we have in Jesus to the test!
Joyce Meyer’s TV broadcast message today was one of the most hard hitting I’ve ever heard from her, and that’s really saying something since she’s never one for holding back the punches! She talked about not taking offense or being angry with God during difficult times, and the first scripture reference she used was about when John The Baptist questioned if Jesus was who he thought he was. And that really caught my attention, because I had thought of that earlier in the week when I went to see “The Nativity and it showed how John leapt in his mother’s womb when Mary called out to Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-45). I couldn’t help wondering how it was possible for him to have recognized Jesus then, and then again later when he baptized Him; even seeing the Holy Spirit descend upon Him in the form of a dove and hearing God say that Jesus was His Son whom He loved and in whom He was well pleased (Matthew 3:13-17), and then later doubt who Jesus was! Yet, that’s exactly what happened, according to Matthew 11:1-6 (AMP), which says:
WHEN JESUS had finished His charge to His twelve disciples, He left there to teach and to preach in their [Galilean] cities.
Now when John in prison heard about the activities of Christ, he sent a message by his disciples And asked Him, Are You the One Who was to come, or should we keep on expecting a different one?
And Jesus replied to them, Go and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed (by healing) and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have good news (the Gospel) preached to them. And blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) is he who takes no offense at Me and finds no cause for stumbling in or through Me and is not hindered from seeing the Truth.
But as sad as it is to say, way too many of us are just like John, because when He was in prison, instead of believing what he had seen with his own eyes, he doubted Jesus and questioned what he had seen, even though he had personally witnessed such an awesome supernatural miracle! And when things don’t seem to be going the way we want, believe, or expect, it’s too easy to question what we believe and whether or not we can trust God or if we ever heard from Him in the first place. So I KNOW most of us can relate to how John felt, because we all have to face and work through similar questions and doubts at some time or another as we stand for the restoration of our marriages. But Jesus understands that too, because John 13:7, says Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”. So we have to decide if we’ll give way to what comes naturally to us, or if we will put our faith and trust in the Lord and wait to see what He’s doing, even if it kills us literally or figuratively. Don’t forget, Jesus told us we’d have to pick up our cross daily to follow Him! But that’s a part of being a Christian most of us don’t want to hear, and many of us find putting our trust and faith in the Lord more than ever when things are NOT going the way we want way too much to ask. But I can’t help wondering if John The Baptist would have experienced a different outcome if he had not doubted the Lord, because James 1:2-8 tells us:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
Even though we have a difficult time understanding that about God’s nature and character, it is so clearly demonstrated throughout the Bible, and perhaps never more clearly than the outcome Job experienced just because he said that even if the Lord killed him, he’d still praise Him! And that’s the attitude God wants and expects us to have, which is why it is so important to stand for our marriages as a matter of obedience to God and not just because we want God to restore our marriages. Don’t forget, God knows what is in our hearts and we can’t fool Him! In fact John 20:24-29 gives us an awesome illustration of that, because it says:
Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Even though this message from Joyce may be very difficult and possibly unsettling for some, it’s a very important one for everyone standing for marriage restoration to listen to and understand, because we may need to ask ourselves some important questions to make sure we have the right attitude and that we’re not allowing disappointment, bitterness and anger toward God to hinder the work of restoration He wants to do in our marriages and families. So please take the time to listen to Don’t Be Offended By Trouble, and learn from it to be blessed and encouraged by love and faith and confidence in the Lord!