The church had a wonderful guest speaker these past couple weeks. He spoke about marriage and God's design for it and for us. Sadly I missed a fair bit of it because of a hungry, grumpy baby, but what I did hear was wonderful. And Hubby filled me in on the rest after.
When we first got married, Hubby and I rarely ever prayed together besides mealtimes. It seemed like our spiritual walks were very separate and different. My family had always been very open about spiritual warfare and prayer and we walked through many dark times and many wonderful times together in our faiths.
Hubby's family is also very strong and rooted deeply in faith. But in his immediate family, he doesn't remember talking about things often. He know has seen and been told of many things that his parents have dealt with, but growing up he had no idea. So as a newly married couple, talking about faith and praying together was very awkward for him.
A few months into our marriage I was having horrible dreams. We were staying in his parents farm home while they were living in a big city renovating houses. And I just felt horribly oppressed and down living there. There was a heaviness for me even when entering the house. It was strange for me to find this since I had visited the home and stayed there many times without feeling that way.
Hubby had an old friend come and see him. They had both been on a mission team together to Trinidad and Tobago. The friend was one of the leaders and had dealt with a lot of spiritual warfare while there. As the leader, he felt like he had to deal with it all alone and he never talked about it with any of the team.
Hubby had also dealt with a lot while there but had never experienced things like that and had never talked about those types of things either, so he also dealt with them alone. That night while hubby and his friend got caught up, they talked about T&T and all that they both experienced while there.
Hubby got home late that night and just came right to bed since I was already asleep.
At about 3 in the morning I was woken from my sleep and the Lord told me to pray for my husband. So I began to pray and speak blessings over him.
Hubby shot up from his sleep and gasped. He reached out to wake me and said "Anita are you up?"
"Yeah, have been for a while."
"Really? Why?"
"God told me to pray for you."
"Really?" he replied sounding much to shocked. "I am glad you were praying." Then he went about explaining his dream. I wont explain it all to you since it was long and detailed and very specific demons were dealt with. But the jist of it was that he was being chased by some demons and they were speaking curses over him. He was running as fast as he could but they just seemed to gain on him with every step.
Then all of the sudden in his dream he felt something change. He stopped running. He turned around and looked at them and said, "No! the blood of Jesus over me." And he started to chase them away, speaking the name of Jesus over them and casting them out.
There was a reason I was woken to pray. He needed my prayers.
That night changed our marriage.
I know that is a huge thing to say but its true. After his dream we stayed up together battling in prayer. We cast away demons that were attacking us and our family. We both were made aware of the importance of praying for each other and with each other.
We truly invited God into our marriage.
We were no longer living our lives together and our spiritual lives separate. Praying together has been a huge part of our marriage since that night.
We notice when we don't pray together, it makes a difference. We find that when we go without praying together we both start to feel disconnected and distant. Our communication suffers greatly when we don't pray together and we both end up having much worse dreams. We have even noticed our children not doing as well through the night when we haven't prayed together for them.
We feel more connected to each other when we are open and pray together. It is hard to be open and honest with each other on a regular basis. But joining together in prayer makes us more vulnerable and open to our spouse. It is a whole new kind of connectedness when you pray together.
We grow closer to God together and it brings us closer in our marriage also. My parents once shared the picture of a triangle with God at the top and each of us at a corner. When God is the focus, together we grow closer to God, making the triangle smaller and bringing us closer to each other as well.
Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.Genesis 2:19-25
Adam and Eve were in the garden with the Lord. That was the way that it was supposed to be. They were in communion with God. And in our relationships we should be also.
The way to have a good, loving, long lasting marriage, is to pray together.
"When God is in your marriage, divorce isn't an option." (via the speaker at church last Sunday)
The speaker talked about how he has seen many marriages that were nearly dead, gain new life when the couple started to pray together.
I am a firm believer in praying with your spouse.
When we are going through rough times, we pray together to get us through.
When we are feeling joyful, we pray together to thank God for how much we are blessed.
God needs to be the center of our marriages. If He is not, we labor in vain. He is the glue that put us together and He is what will hold us together. With Him in our marriages the enemy cannot destroy us and our families. (unless we allow the enemy to come in)
Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain.
Psalm 127:1
Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.
Mark 10:9
No comments:
Post a Comment