When I got married my mom gave me some great advice. She said, “it takes work!” At the time I thought she was crazy because up to that point my relationship and the love I had for my soon to be husband came easy. We never argued, enjoyed the same things and were madly in love. How hard could marriage be?! Of course the reality of marriage set in somewhere in the first year when I walked in on my husband viewing pornography for the first time. It was our first fight and first real issue we would have to work through. Unfortunately, we didn’t spend a lot of time “talking” about the issue and instead just ignored it thinking he would stop after seeing how mad I got. For quite a while after that our marriage felt as though we were just drifting by like ships in the ocean without the anchor. I had lost hope in my husband and our marriage. Even though we were Christians we realized that our problems weren’t being solved because they didn’t involve God. We never prayed as a couple for God to restore our marriage. I firmly believe that a successful marriage involvesthree people, husband, wife and God. Once we involved Christ in our marriage he restored our lives and our marriage.
So how do you restore your marriage, invite God to be there with you. Allow God to shake your life and make it better! Pray as a couple and individually. Begin to change the way you think about your life and your spouse. The devil is the master manipulator so he takes every opportunity to sneak in our minds and spew hate and anger.
“Don’t allow anyone, including the Devil, to convince you that the health and security of your marriage has nothing to do with your thinking, attitude, and beliefs! Truth that is based on the teachings of Jesus and the Bible is truth that can completely transform your heart, life, and relationships” (Focus on the Family).
For those of you who are in a marriage/relationship with a partner that either isn’t a Christian or won’t pray with you, don’t allow that to hold you back from what God can do in your life. If you can’t pray as a couple, pray on your own. If you can’t seek counsel as a couple, seek it on your own and if you can’t go to church as a couple, go on your own. Don’t allow your spouses choices to become a reason for your loss of hope. Stop drifting by in your marriage. There is hope, healing and restoration.
“The enemy tries to come and divide
Trying to get us to give up the fight
But darkness will always lose out to light
‘Cause we’ve got the power of Christ on our side…
God is a God who knows how to heal so just give it up to the Lord
And He will restore”
Chris August-Restore