Every now and then my husband and I need to get away to hear a word from God. We are so busy with our business, United Marriage Encounter, household chores, and writing that we leave little room left for being still and listening to our heavenly Father.
We wake up, do our devotions in the morning,
and then immediately tackle the day. By
the end of a day, we are so exhausted by all the chores that our minds are only
on dinner and how soon we can get to bed.
This past weekend we went to another marriage retreat to
fill our empty cups and pick up more ideas for our ministry. God showed up for us and spoke life into our
marriage which was a blessing. He also
spoke words we were not expecting.
“Spiritual warfare is closer than you think…”
Another holy echo because my husband heard the same words.
We purchased a book onsite that discussed how spiritual
warfare affects your marriage. We are
not unfamiliar with spiritual warfare. We
see it often in our lives.
We don’t dwell on it; however, we do take it seriously and
wanted to take some time to read the book together and see what God was sharing
with us as a couple.
At the end of our weekend, we came home and decided to do
something different. Instead of turning
on the tv to watch a rerun, we sat on our couch and read our new book
together. As Carl read it out loud to
me, I was struck by the words. I am
often so focused on the day-to-day activities I ignore the small attacks that
come quietly into our marriage. Carl also
realized how sneaky the enemy can be in the small things, even through family. As we read together, we had an ‘aha’ moment. We decided to become more determined to guard
our marriage against the sneaky quiet attacks.
We have spent the last few days reading the book together
and praying as the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to situations affecting our
marriage.
This has given us a new closeness as we pray and learn as a
couple. I feel grateful for this new
adventure of reading together.
What are you doing to guard your marriage today?
I don’t discuss spiritual warfare often. But it does not mean it is not there. We need to protect ourselves and our relationships. The enemy would like nothing better than to
implode marriages, or worse stagnate our relationship with Him. Pray together and protect yours today with
the full armor of God.
Ephesians 6: 10-13
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put
on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s
schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put
on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able
to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
No comments:
Post a Comment