When my husband and I were courting, one of our fathers in the Lord told us to write on the place of prayer in marriage. While thinking of what to write for this week I remembered the essay we wrote then and this is what inspired what I want to share with you this week.
Let me start with the lyrics of a song I am sure most believers sang in Sunday school or church at one time or the other.
Prayer is the key 2x
Prayer is the master key
Jesus started with prayer and ended with prayer
Prayer is the master key
The place of prayer in all we do in life cannot be overemphasized especially in marriage. We need to pray always and not faint. Bible says we should PRAY without ceasing, and also Watch and PRAY. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by PRAYER and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God (Phil 4:6).
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayer of the saints (Rev 5:8).
Prayer from the lips of a believer is like a sweet smelling savour, it goes before God as such and the result is a wonder on earth, No wonder the Word of the God tells us the prayer of the sinner is an abomination to God.
Like a master key that opens any door, Prayer opens several doors in marriage. In the place of prayer several battles are won, situations are resolved, hearts of stone become flesh, aching hearts are soothed, wounds are healed, storms are stilled. I could go on and on about what prayer can do in a marriage.
When I wrote my essay on prayer in marriage, I did so without a complete understanding or any experience of marriage. Today I still maintain that I know little but I have practically used the master key to open several doors in my marriage. So like Paul said I share with you that which I have handled.
We need to pray always – giving thanks and making supplications to God. When you are faced with something stormy, go to the one who slept in a storm. When your heart is aching, speak to the one who appreciates a broken heart, He’s the one who went through more betrayals than we could ever experience. When it seems like a wall is coming between you and your partner speak to the one who brought down the walls of Jericho. When your situation is like a maze and you feel lost, call out to the omnipresent one who sees everything and is everywhere, there’s no spot on earth He does not knows. We have a High Priest who can appreciate all we go through.
Stop fighting battles, you’re not meant to fight, give yourself the opportunity of experiencing the passage that says “Be Still and Know that I am God!” After you have prayed, do not worry, have faith that God is able to do all things. God said “Man shall leave mother and father and cleave to his wife” He knows all that is involved in your becoming one and He is not planning to start a thing and not complete it, it is not in His nature.
-lola ezeifeoma
| Information/knowledge is power. But in the search for knowledge you will be exposed to so many books, authors, materials, information etc. confusion sets in. Which is correct? Which approach is best? Which do I experiment first? Why so many contradictions? Save your self the hassles. Start from the word.
Thank God we are Christians and therefore custodians of wisdom, for Christ became wisdom for us. Listen friends, all knowledge and wisdom whose foundation is not the word of God might appear to work, but it will fail. “The wisdom of this age (as dynamic as it is) commeth to nothing” 1 Cor 2:6. Don’t get carried away by the wisdom of men. Results you get from their practice are limited and frail.
The Word of God as contained in scriptures still remains supreme. Start from there. Understand that each time you study the word you are “handling the word of life”. I love that. The Word of life. The Word is the creative force of God. By it all things were created, without the Word was nothing made that was made (John 1:3). All things are sustained by the same Word (Heb 1:3). The totality of life is the Word.
It opens us up to unlimited possibilities. There is no limit to what you can create when you handle the word correctly. Ours is an uncertain world from start to finish. Where do I get capital? How do I protect my investment? Suppose I loose all? Thieves? Stock market crash? Depression? So many frightening alternatives.
But with the word, all things are certain. All things and situations answers to the Word. “We learn how to abound and how to be abased…we learn the secret of life, How to remain the same under all conditions”. We are not afraid to start small. We’ve learnt not to despise little beginnings. We are not afraid to launch out. we have the spirit of boldness…we are coordinated and not ruffled…we have a sound mind….we are not afraid of where to get start up capital…we’ve learnt to call those things that are not as though they were. We have evidence of unseen realities. With the word, I have the assurance my business will prosper…and I know I can rise again seven times in seven. Glory!
The word is to sure. It cannot fail. It is consistent, not time barred nor does it become obsolete. It is not a respecter of persons, governments, policies of economic upheavals. I have read so many books on investment but none can compare to the wisdom discovered in scriptures.
So friends “I commend you to God and to the Word of his power which is able to build you up and give you (deliver to you) an inheritance among those that are sanctified…to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now has been made manifest by the prophetic scriptures…” Rom 16:25-26
-emmanuel aladenusi
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