Marriage from the Scriptures III
TEXT: I Peter 3: 7
Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.
I Peter 3:7 KJV
“Likewise in the same way, HUSBANDS dwell with your wives with knowledge…..” what knowledge?
Knowledge means familiarity with someone or something, this includes facts, information, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. The scripture is saying study your wife, get to know her and deal with her based on this knowledge. So, the next time she behaves in a particular way you do not like, remember that it is in her to behave in that manner, so you do not see it as an offence targeted at you.
“Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established:
And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.” Proverbs 24:3-5
Spend time trying to know your wife. This line reminds me of a film I strongly recommend,Fireproof. And not just know your wife; know what God is saying concerning her too. The next verses that follow explore further…
Giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel ….
Appreciate that she is a weaker vessel. She is not like you, she is strong in her own department but not in yours. She needs to be pampered. She cannot carry the family burden like you can. Women have tried to prove a point of being just as strong but truly they are not. God has created each person uniquely to fulfil a certain purpose. Have you ever seen a man trying to simultaneously carry four bags and a woman doing the same? Or have you seen a woman trying to drive a nail through wood and a man doing the same? God has created each one uniquely for His pleasure. The fact that both male and female are created for His pleasure drives home the next point.
As being heirs together of the grace of life
You are both heirs called of God; she is under your authority but she belongs to God first. Ask God what He would want for her and be sure to support and ensure His will is done in her life just as in yours. Give her your full support. Sometime ago while meditating, I heard in my spirit, that God calls his daughters home (that is, to eternity) sometimes because of this reason. Culture has taught men to keep their wives in subjection and Christian men have brought this idea into marriage thereby hindering the expression of the fullness of God in the lives of their wives. God is a God of order. He is not saying a woman should be disobedient to the man, rather, He is asking men to live, in awareness that they represent Him in the lives of their wives and must remember that in Christ there is no male or female. Don’t get carried away plotting your success plan, forgetting your wife is also a light that must shine. Provide full support for her also to fulfil God’s purpose in her life through your marriage.
That your prayers be not hindered.
Every man who does the Word as required gets express answer to his prayers. The answers to your prayers are tied to knowing your wife, treating her honourably and acknowledging the fact that she is God’s vessel in your care! When you do these things, you open up the heavens for yourself and your home. I have seen this Word work in the life of a few couples I know and the results are astounding!
Please keep studying the Word and share lessons learnt as comments. I look forward to hearing from you!
Online Resources
http://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/2005-02-13-Unhindered-Prayers/
http://bible.org/seriespage/obligations-christian-husbands-their-wives-1-peter-37
http://www.onechristianministry.com/christian-articles-563.html
God Bless and keep you!
Much Love!
-Omolola
Marriage from the Scriptures II
Before we go into this study, I want to put in form of a disclaimer saying, ‘The words I share are not mine’. In fact in the course of this study, I have had to review my own personal stance on some issues. So, just in case you are out there saying, ‘Practice what you preach’ or asking, Can she do that? Remember that it’s God’s instruction and His Word He will honour (Isa 55:11).
TEXT: I Peter 3: 1-6
The same goes for you wives: Be good wives to your husbands, responsive to their needs. There are husbands who, indifferent as they are to any words about God, will be captivated by your life of holy beauty.
Questions
The writer says here: Be good wives to your husbands, responsive to their needs.
What do you think is your spouse’s need?
The needs in the lives of people are different, so it is important to forget how you feel and objectively answer this question. Don’t try to compare your husband with the next man because he is unique.
Please ask yourself the question:
What does my husband need from me?
Do I have what it takes to deliver? What do I need to get in terms of virtue to attain?
You might find out after asking yourself the question about your husband’s need that you lack what is required to deliver, this is why I asked this question. This is the exact situation I found myself. Oh he needs me to be this so he feels like this but how can I? How can I be like this without pretending it not me! Very correct! What is requested of us is not living the life we choose but tapping into the grace of living the life of Christ (Gal. 2:20-21, Isa 53:7).
I have found out that sometimes we have spent too much time dwelling on the shortcomings of our spouses that we become those things without knowing. An example is a woman married to an impatient man who has now become impatient with her husband’s tendencies and snaps back at the slightest provocation. Fire for fire will always lead to wild uncontrolled fire.
This scripture further explains that every husband must be honoured, even those who are not in faith or acting as required. Now this is difficult, how do I do this?
Sister I wish I had all the answers but I don’t, yet I know someone who does: God; and He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. When we spend time in prayer, submit our will, we will find a way out.
It is interesting how much women go through in terms of appearance to please their husband. Some people may not agree with me on this, but if we spent that much effort on our inside we will yield more result. I have found out that no matter how much a woman goes out of her way to remain pleasing in the sight of her husband, his being faithful is dependent on his commitment to God rather than to his wife. Remember Joseph, How can I do this against God! -was his motivation.
What matters most is not only your outer appearance–the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes– but your inner disposition. Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in.
Am I saying you don’t look good, NO! But much more than look GOOD, BE GOOD! Let your style come from inside out showing first the glory of God!
“The holy women of old were beautiful before God that way, and were good, loyal wives to their husbands. Sarah, for instance, taking care of Abraham, would address him as ‘my dear husband.’ You’ll be true daughters of Sarah if you do the same, unanxious and unintimidated.” I Peter 3: 1-6 MSG
“But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” I Peter 3: 4 KJV
God is interested in our living a life of the Spirit! This life is a life that is actually beyond the flesh and we cannot attain being so entangled with things! We need to get to that place where our beauty and calm countenance is a product of the abundance of what we enjoy on our inside. I have met very few women with this grace in my lifetime. My prayer is to become one too! To exude the fragrance of a quiet spirit!
Sarah our example was a very beautiful woman, yet she was not applauded for it but for her spirit, I can imagine my husband telling me to pretend as his sister. (Gen. 20:1-end). My fictional requirement of a husband will cry out, are you not supposed to be my Knight in the shining armour? Why do I need to protect you now?
But my mama Sarah knew better, she saw herself as one who could shield her husband too! Women have always done it in history, Remember Zipporah! She went ahead of Moses to do the needful. (Exo. 4:24-26). Abigail also went ahead of Nabal to secure her husband’s life and hers. (I Sam. 25:3-42).
WORD FOR THE SINGLES
Do you respect your fiancé or boyfriend? Do you think you can bow to his authority? Do you see virtues in him now that you will forever respect?
Highly Recommended Resources:
http://www.todayschristianwoman.com
http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/encouragement/
Please keep studying the Word and share lessons learnt as comments. I look forward to hearing from you!
God Bless and keep you!
Much Love!
-Omolola
Marriage from the Scriptures I
God wants to transform Christian marriages. He wants to take us to the next level and I believe this is the reason why He is releasing word like never before so that we are equipped with the Sword of the Spirit to take us to the next level in our marriages.
I want us to take the next few weeks on this page to study Scriptures together, so I will really appreciate your contributions to this study. Your insight, criticism, disagreements are all welcome as comments and I believe at the end of the study, we will have better marriages and everyone who come in contact with our footprints on this page will bless us for it.
TEXT: I Peter 3: 1-6
“The same goes for you wives: Be good wives to your husbands, responsive to their needs. There are husbands who, indifferent as they are to any words about God, will be captivated by your life of holy beauty.
What matters is not your outer appearance–the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes– but your inner disposition. Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in. The holy women of old were beautiful before God that way, and were good, loyal wives to their husbands. Sarah, for instance, taking care of Abraham, would address him as “my dear husband.” You’ll be true daughters of Sarah if you do the same, unanxious and unintimidated.” I Peter 3: 1-6 MSG
“Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.” I Peter 3: 1-6 KJV
We will start with the admonitions to the women. Interestingly, I found from this scripture that the woman is being given more instructions than the man; most probably because the writer – our father in faith, Peter – realized that the woman has a very peculiar position in marriage. She is not the one who has the final say, as she is to submit to her husband’s will. This is not a very easy position to find yourself but then we have been GRACED to be submissive.
I hear someone ask, ‘Submit even if he is making a wrong decision? How do I submit to the kind of man I have married?’
By going back again to this scripture, the passage acknowledges the fact that your husband will not always be on your side in faith or other situations of life but the way to justify yourself is by actions that are meek not characterized by pride.
“Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;” (verse 1)
God wants us to use our actions to speak volumes, more than our words. This is very difficult! I know and I am a living witness; still going through the process.
Even the best of our actions are sometimes misconceived as pride therefore; it is of great essence to build our inner man to be sensitive enough to know when and how to speak.
Only a totally broken spirit can be submissive as recommended by the scripture. This is why the scripture admonishes us to build the inner man. Become that person that receives her source from God Himself.
Blessed, Broken and Given!
I recommend Cece Winans’ song, Blessed, Broken and Given to everyone reading this piece. It explains the process God uses to build our inner man. God is still using the limited resource to feed thousands with left overs by Blessing, Breaking and Giving!
That inner man was Blessed of God when we gave our lives to Christ, Broken when we let go of our ways and say to the Master, ‘Let your will be done’, and Given after we have learnt the lessons from the process of being broken and now we are giving life to the people God has put in our lives.
We become a source of life to our husbands, children, in-laws, family, colleagues and everyone we come in contact with.
We are able to get here only by giving ourselves to activities that build our spirits and person. Reading the Bible, Good Christian Books (Not Just Christian Love Stories), being a part of Bible Practical Study groups, taking time out to soak up the word, evaluating our lives under the lamp of God’s Word.
I recommend II Peter1:1-9. It gives a breakdown of the life expected of us.
The greatest challenge for the Christian woman today is that she is too encumbered with getting through her daily activities and she has limited time to build herself. She is also often distracted by the need to catch up with vogue! The vanity of who we are is revealed by running a check on what we spend our money on. A quick question, when last did you go to the book shop to find books or audio materials that are intended to build your spirit man?
We spend more time in the salon, more money on human hair, shoes, and bags than the things that build us up! We suffer from the worldliness that has infiltrated the church. The average woman bends down today in church and the brother needs to take cover, she sits down and he is wondering where next to look, because she has not build her Spirit man to know that not all fashion is for her. I am sorry if I sound so hard but we need to talk to ourselves.
We women have fallen victim of the fashion created by the world because we fail to walk circumspectly always asking ourselves, is this for me? Should I be found doing this? All these take us back to the basics: Build your inner man. We need to go back and learn from Sarah, Hannah, Abigail, Zipporah, Dorcas, Lydia, Deborah and so on, who are our real mothers in the faith!
God helping me, we will X-ray the lives of some great women next time.
Some Great Resources
http://www.todayschristianwoman.com
http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/encouragement/
God bless and keep you!
Much Love!
Omolola Ezeifeoma
His dream
A great job that could pay for all life dreams, a beautiful wife who would equally be on top of her game and would be his best friend, lovely kids; courteous, intelligent, God fearing. A life of service to God!
His Reality
The dream job came and took away the time to serve God. Having devotion became a struggle because there was no time. The job took away time with God and replaced God with unbelieving friends. Then things started cracking with the wife because they spent less time together. Investments cracked and cash did not flow as planned. The job is no longer giving the satisfaction it once used to give.
The home front is not so pleasant any more, the life of service to God he once hoped for looks like a mirage. Is there any way out of this endless cycle?
I share with you again some true, basic Christian faith principle we often forget as life hits us.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God. Matt 6:33
Seek ye first the kingdom of God! God knows there are bills to be paid. He already said, ‘Let your life not be about what to wear, eat or drink, the Father knows you need these things’. Therefore the core of your existence cannot be around a Job but the Kingdom! The very few who get this right and appropriate it never fail! They might not have millions and billions stashed somewhere but they have everything they need!
Very important at this point to mention is that a need is different from want. Take time to examine your life and see if you have been chasing wants or needs!
We are under pressure because of the society’s expectation, what parents, family or friends think. This should not be so; our whole existence must be centred on giving God pleasure!
Depend on God’s Grace
I have a precious song I learnt many years ago that puts what I have to say on this into words.
On Christ the Lord I place my trust
To find my glory in the power of the cross
In every victory let it be said of me
That my source of hope and my source of strength is Christ the Lord!
Depend on God for your every existence, by this I mean become God-dependent in all of your ways.
Jesus said in John 15, ‘Abide in me, when you abide in me you will bear much fruit. You cannot claim to
be a part of the vine and be disconnected from the vine’.
God wants you back right where you belong in Him!
Live by Galatians 2:20 which says “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me. ”
The world does not have the answer!
The world does not have answers to our questions, a lot of families are disintegrated because men and women have gone to the way of the world to find answers to their financial needs. Little wonder so many of us Christians were victims of WONDER BANKS and a lot of other fraudulent schemes.
God is able! There is so much wisdom God would want us to have to unearth the riches of this world if we can just stay at His feet.
God’s grace is not just a phenomenon, it is very practical and it has been made available to us in abundance through prudence and wisdom if only we are a little more conscious of God’s views concerning our life choices. There are lots of trendy things out there today that are not meant for us Children of God but we have put our hands into them because we are not paying attention to our action.
Again let’s do an audit of our lives. The decisions we make, are they motivated by the fear of the unknown or our faith in what God will have us do?
God is a God of Purpose and Process. He has a plan for our lives and He has a route He would want us to take, yet He gives us the power to choose the way we eventually want.
Today I leave a message to all men reading this piece; God wants us to love our wives like Christ loved the church. The Church was not a perfect one but Christ loved it to perfection! Please let’s love our wives first for who they are and show them the way to be the great woman they can be.
Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered. I Pet 3:7
This passage is loaded I could go on and on about it, but I will leave it here till next week, may the Lord help us all to reach out to the resources He has made available to us.
Shalom!
-Omolola Ezeifeoma
We want to have a marriage where the relationship is based on friendship, yet he wants to be KING and she wants to be QUEEN.
For a lot of my African readers, you will agree with me that the African culture tells the man he is superior. Some cultures emphasize the man’s Lordship more than ever others.
The man believes the wife should be submissive to him as the Bible demands, and the woman expects to be loved by her man.
What does this mean in practical terms and what price will be paid to attain?
Today we live in a world where man and woman work in partnership to get the home running. In some cases, the woman is as busy as the man or busier, yet the challenge of running the home lies on her. She is under so much pressure to deliver both at home and at work.
Sometime ago I was at a meeting organized for women, all the women in the group had one thing in common; STRESS! She gets up earlier, rushes to prepare the home for the day, gets to work and rushes back home to be there for the children, works till late in the night to prepare for the next day and the cycle continues. So the average woman needs so much make up to cover her stress or spoil herself so much to help her self-esteem and get herself to believe she is getting something for her labour.
The average woman believes she was not just meant to be a mother, so she wants to work and grow as fast as her male counterpart, have multiple streams of income, yet be the mother that holds it together and the wife that makes coming home the high point of the day for her husband.
This is a great dream with a very high PRICE, which is being ready to accept the challenges that come with this choice.
You need to be able to classify every matter as SOLID, LIQUID and GAS. SOLID relates to the essentials, LIQUID important yet not so essential and GAS what you can do without; the vanities of life.
I am like that woman and I know the price is very high. Sometimes the price is your spiritual or physical health, or being misunderstood by people around, even your spouse, or even your purpose for setting out into the this cycle in the first place. Being this hyper active woman might mean not being there for your children all the time, so you want to give quality to every time you spend with them. You want to stamp in them the fact that you love them even while apart, you need to review your VALUE system and say to yourself, what is that one thing I need this children to know even if I do not teach them anything and set out to achieving it.
Above all, to be treated as a Queen, you need to make your husband feel like a king. This is very difficult when you are so stressed all the time or you are not getting the right treatment from your spouse but then you need to realize that this is a SOLID part of the matter. You need to be at peace with your husband to function optimally even within the home. You need to evaluate the price of peaceful co-existence with your spouse and pay it. You may need a loan from the Holy Spirit to do this. Remember: a wise woman builds her home. She is wise because she does things at the right time and when she fails to, she can admit her mistakes and get better.
Finally, as Christian woman whatever takes us away from God is really not worth it. We need Christ at the centre of our being to get things really working. We cannot afford to be too busy for the kingdom.
The scripture remains the same yesterday, today and forever. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God …..Matt 6:33
As we seek him, my prayer is that we find Him and the Peace He promised us.
Have a week full of new discoveries of God’s Love, Peace and Joy!
-OmololaEzeifeoma
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost,
whether he has sufficient to finish it?
Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold itbegin
to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty
thousand?
Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions
of peace.
So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:28-33
As years pass by and I think more about this life, I come to realize that nothing just happens, we make things happen. Positive and negative things happen because of the choices we make or decide not to make. Our seeming inaction speaks of a choice we have made and they all come with their consequences.
This life principle also applies to our marriage. Dreams of a successful marriage don’t make a successful marriage, rather deliberate actions towards making our dream come to pass, does. After much dreaming should come costing. There is a cost for our dream home, as it applies to other aspects of life, nothing good comes cheap. Our salvation did not come cheap at all, neither does our remaining in faith cost less.
A lot of Christian marriages are in trouble today because of this. We dream big about the ideal home and won’t pay the price.
We start out as couples who want to serve God with all our might but take jobs that keep us too busy to serve God.
We are too busy individually to spend time even as a couple.
We want to have quality time with our children but we are caught up with the rat race to pay bills. We have bought the multiple streams idea and that is keeping us too busy. We are too busy to be our children’s first examples.
We want to build houses that will not remain after the coming of Christ, so much that the sacrifices for this are eternal things.
We have found ourselves in the life’s washing machine, and we keep spinning around.
It’s time to stop to ask ourselves the question,’what really is important’? This is a question I started asking myself after my father passed on. He worked so hard and left so suddenly. And it really got me thinking and revisiting my life principles.
What is important? How important will be my conflicts with my spouse if the final whistle is blown today? How important will be the things that keep me away from home so much? What is the eternal value of the things I invest my time in?
How would I have preferred to live my life? What is the cost of my preferred life pattern?
I will leave you with these thoughts for this week. Next week we will reason more along these lines in details.
God Bless!
-OmololaEzeifeoma
For some reason I was too weak to go to church on Sunday, I decided to spend time with Dan Foster on Praise & Inspiration on inspiration FM and I got to hear these testimonies.
Two young people fell in love and got married and within one year of their marriage, God blessed them; wife got pregnant with a set of twins, and they had nine months of blissful journey carrying the baby and then at delivery, one of the babies died and then some days later, the wife also died. And this man called in to praise God and asked Him for forgiveness about three weeks after.
Another Lady called in to say she heard God lead her out of a relationship, to marry a person and within six month of marriage she found out her husband had another child outside of marriage and she was heart broken but life then goes on.
Another lady called in to talk about the miscarriage she had within one year of marriage that left her bitter but she’s now encouraged to bless God!
I asked myself what can prepare a person for times like this? This man got married looking forward to a life time of Joy, Peace, Love and Accomplishments and now he is experiencing this?
What could have prepared a person for such emotional swing; joy one moment and the next what seems like an endless pit of sadness?
Only God and God alone!
I was also listening to some analysis of a new book about the unknown prophet over the weekend and one of the things she mention about this present times is that the enemy is attacking Christian marriages; Leading people to choose wrongly and even when they choose rightly distract them with challenges of life to keep them from working for the kingdom. So that you hear some people say they are so beaten they feel they have nothing to offer. Let me tell about the Wounded Healer! By His stripes you are healed! The stripes of Jesus did not keep him from being a healer rather it confirmed his being a healer. All your scars are for the healing of others.
I never knew the kind of joys and sorrows I have experienced since being married could ever exist. I never knew I could come this far almost scar less but you know what I am here today more resolved than ever before not to waste any of my pain and joy. And so I have decided to write after every pain or joy.
We have been talking about the perquisites to marriage for sometime now and I have come to the conclusion that no long list will answer the question. The one and only thing you need before you proceed and while on this journey of marriage is God. Quit playing church and get real with God. Get into the Bible and study the word, make it food for your soul. Learn to be a Christian by reading about the life of Christ. Understand the grace and new life you have been called to by reading the New Testament thoroughly. Study the Old to understanding how the journey began and appreciate the kind of God you worship. Stop toying with sin; the wages of sin is death!
The only reason we fall apart is because God is not the one holding our very core together. A solid relationship with God will walk you through every storm or success in life.
Get and Remain Connected to God!
Shalom!
omolola ezeifeoma
Marriage is like a man and woman going into a room and taking off their clothes with the light on. You get to see each other’s blemishes that have been hidden by clothes earlier. One of the greatest discoveries would be your partner’s attitude towards money. For some, the discovery is not immediate. And in a situation where one of the partners has lived beyond his or her means prior to marriage, it seems like the first thing they notice, once the doors are closed after the ceremony.
Money is a major part of human life. And money represents different things at different times, to different people.
Money represents time; money is a reward we get after spending hours of our life at working hard. Money is a problem solver. Money is a seed that can be sown to multiply it. Money is a gift to be shared with others that do not have.
Money gives a form of confidence.
Everyone should have some money under his or her control. By this I mean money that can be spent without having to answer to anyone on how and why.
Money can build walls between people in any form of relationship and this is even worse in marriage.
Most couples no matter how spiritual, educated or in love will disagree over money at one point in time or the other and where this is not well managed, light cracks begin to appear in the marriage.
I once read that when sex is good in a marriage, it is 10% and when it is bad it is 90%. I want to relate the same to money, when finance is good in a marriage; it is 10% and when it is bad it is 90%.
In the light of the times we are in today, I want to focus on when the finance situation is bad.
Everyone has a financial situation or the other, sometimes it seems as though marriage places a magnifying lens on our financial situation. Immediately after marriage your status quo changes, especially here in Africa, now you’re expected to participate more in family events and your own cost of living is growing too.
Whenever things are tight like this in families, there’s lot of pressure on husband and wife, or the intending couple planning to get married.
The stock markets have not boomed like everyone expected, plans have been made based on expectations that have not been met. Instead we have a situation where banks are trying to recovered monies borrowed out. And now a festive season is about the corner, what do we do? Where do we run to?
The last thing we are expected to do as believers is to take the pressure on one another and ruin the spirit of the season.
Love should help us bind more to each other, love can conquer all, fit your budget into what you have and enjoy a lower budget holiday bearing in mind that the next will be greater!
Though the cherry trees don’t blossom and the strawberries don’t ripen; though the apples are worm-eaten and the wheat fields stunted; though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns empty,
I’m singing joyful praise to GOD. I’m turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God.
Counting on GOD’s Rule to prevail, I take heart and gain strength. I run like a deer. I feel like I’m king of the mountain! Hab 3:17-19 (MSG)
Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. Hab 3:17-19 (KJV)
So put up the Christmas lights and start playing the Christmas jingles, put everyone around you in the holiday mood.
Bring down every imagination and high thing that exalts itself above the knowledge of God and enjoy this Christmas.
All things are working together for your good!
Lots of Love
omolola ezeifeoma
| Have you ever been in a room that has been left for a while without use? The first thing you’ll notice is the stale air and dust. If you’re like me the first thing you will do is sneeze on entering and run for the louvers in order to take in some fresh air and expel the dust.
This description is what fits a number of Christian homes today. Mummy and Daddy are not on talking terms, and instead of obeying the scriptures by not letting the sun set on our anger, we let it set and rise for many days. The devil steps in and capitalizes on the space left and before you know it, a once sweet song has stopped playing.
What’s the situation in your home like? Is the air in your home stuffy? Do you have a well ventilated home? Do you keep the windows open to let stale air out and allow fresh air in? Do you remember to close the windows at night?
Remember, Love keeps no record of wrong; Love does not seek its own. If you really love your partner as much as you said then, you need to forget about who is wrong and work on creating an atmosphere to correct the wrong. Forget about how hurt you feel and try to make things work again.
This is not denying that the other person has done wrong, it is avoiding, killing an ant with a sledge hammer. If you lose the trust of your spouse in a bid to make a point, you will never make that point. In a matter of time you will find out that you have only succeeded in widening the gap between you two.
I can almost hear someone say I am sure you don’t understand Lola; you can’t imagine what he/she did. Whatever the person has done could not be as bad as what you did to the saviour before you met Him and even after you got to know Him. And you know what God commended His love towards us while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Can you follow in His footsteps by forgiving even without hearing a sorry?
Marriage is a call to live the Christianity we profess. We need to take the words of God just as they are. Your actions will never gain popularity with men, quit getting counsel from people who don’t belong to same redemption plan as you. Bible says ’Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly’ Psalm1:1. Submit yourself again to the Holy Spirit, forget about pride and yourself, think about the kind of marriage you want and work towards achieving it by converting all this stumbling block to stepping stones. After every disagreement with my spouse I try to achieve some goals
Please let this words flow freely as often as they need to be said
God Bless you as you let love win always. – omolola ezeifeoma |
A maiden who hails from some ghetto
Dingy and rusty with respect to civilization
Suddenly to her utter amazement
An inimitable noble man approaches her
I would like to marry you-he said
Her jaw drops and she mopes in absolute disbelief
Her thoughts traveled faster than a whirlwind
What does he see in me-she wondered?
Is it my beauty?
Is it my sophistication?
Is it my gorgeous outlook?
Is it my large pocket?
Is my exquisite display of good manners?
Is it my soignée cum debonair?
She summed up all her qualities and still amounted to a minus with respect to the guys qualities
Love at first sight my foot
He is obviously infatuated
I am sure he is one of those ritual killers
In fact how can he just say he wants to marry me…why?
He does not just stop there
He wields his influence
He finally reaches an agreement with her
He goes ahead to pay her bride price
Down the aisle they walked
For better for worse they signed as usual
They had a vow to be joined for eternity
This obviously blows the whims
It should be till death do them part?
This is just startling
The greatest marriage ever
Christ and the church…(Col.1: 21-22,Eph.5: 25-26&30)
– emeka ofia