A couple of days ago, Jenn (one of the FAM Fellowship members) posted the following message on the ladies private site, and I greatly appreciate her permission to share it here. It’s certainly perfectly timed, especially in light of the exciting changes coming to FAM Ministries in the New Year, so let’s receive the promise of these awesome words and be blessed and encouraged as we expect and celebrate the coming year of jubilee! Thank you, Jenn, for sharing what the Lord put on your heart with all of us!

Dear standers.

I just want to let everyone know that I am so excited to read about the many praises that have been posted recently on the website. How wonderful it is to be able to read the miraculous things god is doing in your marriages.
What is also so awesome to see, is how God is bringing more and more standers to this ministry for us to help encourage and strengthen each other. How Awesome is HE!!!

Thank you to everyone for continuing to lift my family up in prayer. It’s really hard for me not being involved in the ministry as much as I have been in the past, but spending all my time with my family this Christmas has been well worth it. Please still know that each and everyone of you are in my prayers. Just a quick update as well, letting you know that this Christmas Holiday has been wonderful so far with all 4 of us in the home. Having our son home during Christmas break was the best Christmas present ever. My husband has been sick for most of this time as well. But, God has allowed me to be his nursemaid. THANK YOU GOD! My in-laws flew in yesterday. I am so excited to have them here. I know I am one of those lucky people, because my in-laws mean the world to me. They are also standing with me in agreement for the restoration of our marriage.

In the last 2 days, God has really been laying it on my heart and speaking to me very loud and clear. Over and over I hear him say 2007 Jubilee. I recently sat down and looked into God’s word about Jubilee. And I am so excited. Here’s what I found about The Year of Jubilee:

Leviticus 25:8-55 (I edited out some of the verses to save space, so read them all at this link, - Linda)
8 “‘Count off seven sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years.
9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land.
10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan.
11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines.
12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.
13 “‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property.
17 Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the LORD your God.
18 ” ‘Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land.
19 Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety.
20 You may ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?”
21 I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years.
22 While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.
23 ” ‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.
38 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
39 “‘If one of your countrymen becomes poor among you and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave.
40 He is to be treated as a hired worker or a temporary resident among you; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.
41 Then he and his children are to be released, and he will go back to his own clan and to the property of his forefathers.
54 “‘Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children are to be released in the Year of Jubilee,
55 for the Israelites belong to me as servants. They are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 27:17-24
17 If he dedicates his field during the Year of Jubilee, the value that has been set remains.
18 But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, the priest will determine the value according to the number of years that remain until the next Year of Jubilee, and its set value will be reduced.
19 If the man who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, he must add a fifth to its value, and the field will again become his.
20 If, however, he does not redeem the field, or if he has sold it to someone else, it can never be redeemed.
21 When the field is released in the Jubilee, it will become holy, like a field devoted to the LORD; it will become the property of the priests.
22 “‘If a man dedicates to the LORD a field he has bought, which is not part of his family land,
23 the priest will determine its value up to the Year of Jubilee, and the man must pay its value on that day as something holy to the LORD.
24 In the Year of Jubilee the field will revert to the person from whom he bought it, the one whose land it was.

The lord is really speaking to me on this. I feel the Holy Spirit telling me that we need to dedicate ourselves to him; to fully stand by faith with no wavering or doubting. We can’t keep getting off the band wagon for our marriage restorations; even just with little thoughts of “what if”. That only hinders what God has in store for us. We need to help encourage each other on a daily basis and it does not matter what the circumstances are. We need to trust God and know that this is just a season for growth in our relationship with him; that HE is going to use this season for us to help minister and bring others to HIM by example. We need to stand and practice his law. Read his word, study his word, and apply his word, and most importantly, LIVE HIS WORD.

This is going to be a year of Jubilee; a year of strengthening our relationship with GOD, and HIM restoring families all over the world just as he stated in Leviticus 25:10, It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan.

Father, Thank you so much for bringing each and every one of us to this ministry. Thank you for ministering to each heart that reads the prayers and praises of your miracles. Father, thank you for your agape love that you have for us and our spouses. I can’t give you enough praise and honor out of my mouth that would even begin to tell you what it means for you to be the number one focus in my life. I could not be who I am today without you. Thank you. Father, I just lift up my fellow brothers and sisters in this ministry and I ask that you would begin to speak to each one individually. Give each one of them peace during this season of storms that we are in. Give them the strength and discernment that they need to stand so they may reap the year of Jubilee for their family and generations to come. Thank you, Father. I ask this in your precious name. AMEN and AMEN

It is with a great deal of excitement and anticipation that I announce a big change coming to Faith And Marriage Ministries in the next few days. We are no longer a marriage restoration ministry for women only, and we’re currently in the process of setting up another private and secure website for our men’s FAM Fellowship! So there will be some modifications to our public website in the coming days, but they shouldn’t be very significant, even though some additional features are possible as we make such a tremendous and momentous transition. And since the Lord has given me many other visions of ways this ministry can be used to bring healing and restoration to many as we lift up His name and bring glory to His kingdom, I eagerly look forward to seeing them all come to pass!

The Lord has blessed and worked through this ministry in ways I never dreamed or imagined when He first sowed the seeds of it in my heart just sixteen months ago. And the things He’s done in the ten months since this website went up are indeed nothing short of miraculous and an awesome testimony of God’s faithfulness to honor His word when we honor Him with obedience by walking in His ways and living in accordance with His word! That means I’ve actually seen total confirmation of one of my favorite passages of scripture, which is Psalm 37:4-6, because it promises Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

And I’ve certainly seen that confirmed over and over again in the past ten months, especially when four husbands returned to their marriages and families, keeping a total of nine children from living with the consequences of separation and divorce! Then in addition to that, the Lord put a halt to the pending separation of three other families with a total of seven more children, which were definitely on the brink of disaster. And the power and grace of God’s love and mercy have literally transformed troubled relationships between countless other husbands and wives, so many other families now appear to be very close to restoration! And I personally witnessed the most awesome power of God’s word at work, as I saw how it changed the hearts and attitudes of many of the women involved with the ministry in the past year. And most recently, the Lord used the wonderful men and women associated with this ministry in one way or another to bless two families in need this Christmas, which made what would have been a naturally disappointing Christmas for two women and their four children a Christmas they’ll probably never forget! And despite all of the incredible miracles I’ve been blessed to witness, the thing that NEVER ceases to totally blow my mind is the Lord’s amazing faithfulness and willingness to confirm everything! I see that almost every day of my life and quite often many times a day! But one of the most awesome miracles of all, is the one the Lord has done in my own heart and life! Very few people can honestly say that every day of their life just seems to be better than the one before, but that’s the only way I know how to describe my life and relationship with the Lord! I just can’t wait to get up every day to see what He’s going to do next, and it is ALWAYS so much more than I could ever ask or imagine! I’ve seen the Lord perform so many miracles that I don’t even share them all now, because after a point it just sounds too incredible to believe! And I’ve actually experienced instantly answered prayers, which is something I don’t recall happening in the past. And the list could just go on and on, but the bottom line is that we serve the most awesome God and His wonders NEVER cease, so I just want to give Him all praise, honor and glory for ALL I’ve seen Him do and ALL that I know He’s yet to do!

But I couldn’t possibly count and give thanks for my blessings in the past year without thanking every one of you for your interest, participation and support of this ministry, because without you it would be nothing! The Lord has certainly blessed this ministry with some of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing; ALL of you are very special to me, and I thank the Lord for each and every one of you. So the following prayer from Ephesians 3: 14-21 is my heartfelt prayer for each of you as we come to the close of one year and enter into the glorious and victorious year I’m certain God has planned for all of us in the coming New Year!

for this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

One of the most powerful things I’ve seen at work in this ministry is the totally unexplainable power of humility and how it so effectively works in marriage restoration, which is why I often say I just wish I could make women (and now men…more about that to come!) understand it. So I was really pleased to get permission from Adrienne Enghouse to share her awesome restoration testimony, which was recently included in one of Judy Rousseau’s email messages. Since Adrienne plans to write a book about her experience some day, this is just a little preview of her powerful and touching testimony of how the Lord worked in her heart and life as He taught her the power of humility, which makes me sure she’d agree that one of the most confounding things about learning to walk in humility is how easy it actually becomes once we learn to put it into practice…and the peace it brings! An earlier SOF post, The Power Of Humility, quotes a lot of Bible verses about pride and humility, so I strongly recommend reading it, and NEVER forget God’s awesome promise in 1 Peter 5:5-7, which says Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. That’s why I love Adrienne’s testimony SO much; she vividly expresses and illustrates the reality of what it takes to walk out the above passage of scripture, which is something anyone standing for marriage restoration needs to pay very close attention to and LEARN from! So thank you, Adrienne, for your obedience and allowing the word of your testimony to be used to overcome the devil in accordance with Revelation 12:10-11, which says Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. I know everyone will be blessed and encouraged by it!

“I hear in my Spirit it is time. Time for what I ask. Time to share our story. This will be a brief overview of God’s great grace, mercy, forgiveness, and restoration. The book is to follow:) Where to start…when I was crying on the bedroom floor, when he had walked out, and left his ring…or when he looked at me and said, “I want a divorce” No a little farther back.* *

I was a Christian or so I thought. I prayed when I needed something. Praised when all went well. Mostly I pursued my career and wasn’t a Biblical wife. Would never dream of making dinner for my husband or straightening the house because he was coming home. After all I had worked all day taking care of the children. And the house, well he was the one with the problem with it, let him clean it. Blessing him, why didn’t he bless me. I did all the work. I sat through a class one time where a woman discussed this very thing and I scoffed. “What century is she from?”

Yep, I brought home the bacon, fried it up in a pan, and did the dishes. And…he didn’t appreciate me a bit. I had grown weary of working 74 hours a week and we still couldn’t pay the bills. I earned over $130,000 and I never saw my children. Didn’t care that much if I saw him. But when he said he wanted a divorce, my heart broke into a thousand pieces. My friends told me he was a bum and to get on with my life. People at the church I started to attend told me divorce was okay. Some of the pastors had been divorced. After all he had committed adultery. So, as I lay on the bedroom floor, in the fetal position. Crying so hard I couldn’t even breathe effectively anymore. I cried out to the only One I thought maybe could help. But that was the start of a faith walk like nobody could write about.

First I had to believe He was there. And all though through out life I had prayed, even praised. I really had never come to the core of…is He real. Well, like the M&M’s guys say, He really is real. I set out to find out. (more likely He set about revealing) And low and behold, one thing after another fell into place. My friend Kelly and I reconnected. Without me knowing it, she had been training in deliverance ministry. And we spent hours going through my life, repenting, undoing, and restoring, generational curses broken and wrong thinking changed, with the Holy Spirit leading the way. I soaked it up like a sponge. I was bone thirsty for the word of God and HIS promises. And as the chains broke off and I started to walk in that freedom, strange things started to happen.

I could hold my tongue in heated situations. I could be humble and even apologize. I could even apologize when I wasn’t really wrong. Just because God asked me to do it. Just to keep peace. I could be right, and lay down my right and let the other person think they were right. I could just shut my mouth, and let God be my justice.

I started to hear God and walk in obedience. But there was along season of feeling like I was walking in the new way, but was blind and kept running into walls. Or stumbling over rocks. I prayed about selling our dream house. But clearly “felt” like I should sell it. I called the broker who had sold it to us, and it sold in three days of being on the market. I called the tenants at our rental house and told them that we needed the house back. And they found a place to live in a few days. We needed a home for our St. Bernard. We were leaving 10 acres and moving back to the city. A man showed up one day who lived up the street and asked about Elvis. To this day we don’t know how he knew we were looking for a home for our dog. But he had two other St. Bernards, and twenty acres, fenced!!!! It was awesome. I was praying constantly and answers were coming in very miraculous ways.

But the one prayer that eluded me was, “God bring my husband home.” I begged. I pleaded. I cried. But again I get ahead of myself. The house sold. The children and I moved back to the old house. One day I was sitting in a parking lot of a Christian bookstore, crying. Waiting for them to open so I could buy some help book someone recommended. And suddenly I wasn’t in the car anymore, but I was standing before Jesus. And He held me in His arms, stroked my hair. I sobbed onto HIS beautiful robes, and yet they absorbed my tears, and there was no dampness on HIS robes. He told me, “this is not what I wanted for you. I will _contend _____ for you.” Now that should have been the end of the conversation. I mean I had come face to face with Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I had been given a promise from the ONE. But I continued to pray. I continued to cry out. In all of that crying out I learned alot about God. We had conversations about me. About my attitudes. About my view of HIM. About how I must think I am God. After all, my prayers were merely directives, telling HIM what I wanted. I asked HIM about strategy. How would He get my husband to return home? And He showed me. He showed me what my husband needed to be won over to HIM. He showed me that Stephen would need to experience unconditional love in terms he could understand. God showed me that He first loved me with unconditional love. When I cried,” I can’t do this anymore.” God reminded me that through HIM all things are possible. Not some things, but all things. Like that time my husband invited me to go camping. Showed up at the house and told me we wouldn’t be going. He was still going with the boys, and her. He then proceeded to take our family camping equipment and pack it into his car. I had cleaned it, packed food, gotten it all ready and now he was going to take it to camp with her. I thought I was going to die. As he started to pull out of the driveway God said, “Stephen forgot the watermelon. Go give him the watermelon.” I did. Before he got to the end of the block I was at my friend’s doorstep, sobbing.

Through all of this, God was teaching me to die to self. He was teaching me to walk in obedience and be humble. Like the Christmas I couldn’t afford a Christmas tree or anything for that matter. But God told me to go and buy one for Stephen, the woman he was living with at the time, and her son. I left work and drove toward their house. I said, “God where am I going to find a Christmas tree?” But as I approached the street, there was a Christmas tree lot. I said, “God, what if they already have a tree.” He said, “well then they will have two. But do you think I would send you out on a rainy night to buy a tree they already have.” Duh!!! I said, “God what if they are home. You told me to not tell them that I did it. ” God said, “Since I set this up, why don’t you let Me worry about the details.” And sure enough, nobody was there. The next day someone gave the children and I a Christmas tree. My husband called to talk to the children, and asked to speak to me. He never asked to speak to me without something nasty to say. So I braced myself, and he asked if I had bought them a Christmas tree. I asked God and He said to confess. I did, and I saw one of the first cracks in my husband’s heart. God told me to agree that the children could go there Christmas Eve night. With great pain, fear and trepidation, I agreed. This softened Stephen’s heart even more towards me. I was at home later that night, crying on the couch. When he and the boys pulled in the driveway. He spent the night and we woke up Christmas morning together like a family. That was the first time he came home. Much to my pain, he came and went several more times in the next two years.

There was a Christmas present under the tree because God had told me to buy it. Now, three weeks before Christmas my husband was not even speaking to me. Only cold stares, and mean comments, if he spoke to me at all. But God told me to spend every penny I had on a gift for my husband. I had doubts. Like what if she had bought him this item. What if he threw it back at me. But God said, “His response is not why you are obedient to me. You are obedient to me because of who I am to you.”
So I spent every penny on that gift. I had no money for the kids gifts. But I was not going to be concerned. God would do something. Well as you read above, my husband was there for Christmas, and shocked and humbled by the gift. A week before Christmas, my husband was at the house and a woman appeared at the door. When I answered she handed me a basket. Inside was almost the exact amount of money I had spent on Stephen’s gift, and alot of my very favorite goodies. The next day a woman on the Internet prayer group I belonged to sent me and Amazon gift card. It was a very blessed Christmas.

But my husband continued to pursue hard after a divorce. The settlement was terrible. No child support, and I was going to end up with the bills. My gut ached. I knew I couldn’t swing the bills. So again before the throne of God I showed HIM the divorce paperwork. I said, “What do I do about this? This is terrible. It is like he is getting everything he wants.” And God said, “Yes. I am going to let him have everything he wants…” There was a grin in God’s voice. Mischievous, He was up to something. And then it occurred to me, yes, yes, he is going to get everything that he wants. Then he will know that is not what he wants. I got it. I understood. What a perfect strategy!! God said, “Yeah, I thought it up myself.”

I asked God for a specific promise. Yep even after seeing Jesus Christ and hearing from HIS own mouth, I was still asking for confirmation and a promise. I was obviously a very tough case. But God told me, “I will deliver you from divorce” And He said, “We will face your worst fear.” I had know idea that my worst fear was divorce. I had come from a home broken by divorce. My mother had been married 5 times. It was so deep and painful but God showed me I was afraid and He would heal me. Again, duh!! I had to go through the divorce to be healed. I Okay, during those times of revelation, when God shows us deep, and mysterious things. It all seems so perfect, and of course it is perfect. But walking it out was very painful. Layer, upon layer, upon layer of flesh died. And when I thought no more could die, there was another layer. The first time I knew the kids were with my husband and this adulterous woman I raced over there in the car and picked them up. I was so angry. But the second time I walked out into the garden and started weeding. I cried out, “God how can you let this happen to them…to me?” And He answered, “do you trust Me?” Of course there is only one answer to that question, meekly I replied, “yes.” Suddenly I was overwhelmed with warmth, and joy!!! That yes would be put to the test 1000 times before this part of the journey ended.

This story only encompasses mostly the first year of our journey. There were many other women, broken promises and heartache. But I simply kept surrendering. Truly and honestly the number one thing that got me through all of this was to surrender to doing things the way Christ would have me do them. I was reminded if I was asked for my cloak to give my shirt. As for me, in any way a situation concerned me, I was to be at peace. If God asked me to do something He would provide a way to accomplish it. I learned to rely heavily on the HOLY SPIRIT to show me what to do in every situation. I learned that usually what I needed to do, was not going to look anything like the church or others thought it
should. I learned that God is a very BIG, BIG God and was almost always going to do something very unexpected. The tears didn’t stop in those 3 years. In fact despite the fact that my husband is home, I still cry out in pain,and frustration. They are short lived. I bounce back quickly and by the awesome grace of God, I am still standing. Only by HIS power and might could I have come through such a horrific time in life and be still standing. In HIS awesome grace, adrienne Bondservant to Christ”

In response to my post yesterday about How We Know God Wants Us To Stand for our marriages, a regular visitor to the website posted the following question:

“I read in a marriage restoration manual from another marriage restoration website that the “divorce for marital unfaithfulness” that Jesus referred to in Matt. 19:1-9 was directed towards the bride-to-be and bridegroom-to-be during their 1-year “betrothal period” PRIOR to marriage, which was the Jewish custom at the time. Therefore, Jesus did not permit divorce for individuals who were ALREADY married, but rather forgiveness was required. Can you please comment on this? God Bless…!”

So my post today is in response to Dave’s question, which I really appreciate, because that was one of the controversies I had in mind when I said I wasn’t going to get into all of the controversies, and it provides an opportunity to address a very important issue. So thank you, Dave, for such a great question!

First and foremost, Deuteronomy 12:32 (NKJV) tells us “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.
However, there’s an awful lot of adding to and taking away from the plain meaning of God’s written word when it comes to the majority of opinions and practices in matters of marriage, divorce and remarriage in today’s Christian church. But God’s word is complete and flawless; perfect… and requires NO additional information outside of what it contains to make its meaning and intent clear, as confirmed in the following verses:

Proverbs 30:5-6 - “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.

Revelation 22:18 - I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.

Psalm 19:7 - The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

Psalm 19:9 - The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous.

That makes using other passages of scripture the ONLY reliable and sure way to define, explain and understand what the Bible means, which might be most effectively accomplished by topical Bible study. It also means that we can NOT draw conclusions about one passage of scripture contrary to ANY other passage of scripture, because the Bible does not contradict or challenge itself. Sadly, that is what discredits many leading preachers and teachers today when it comes to understanding and explaining what the Bible teaches about marriage, divorce and remarriage, and even how adultery figures into the mix. However, when there appear to be contradictions, there’s always a place somewhere in the middle, allowing both passages to be true, which usually means that one is true up to a point and then the other applies. But one verse or passage of scripture can never be used to invalidate or cancel out the other. Yet that’s exactly what a lot of the modern interpretations of biblical teachings concerning marriage, divorce and remarriage require, which creates a great deal of confusion, and we know that is not of God, because 1 Corinthians 14:33 (NKJV) tells us For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

Now, getting to Dave’s question, the following passages of scripture are the ones often used to help prop up the opinion that Jesus was not referring to marital unfaithfulness AFTER marriage, but rather to the “betrothal” period of one year before the couple started living in the same home and the marriage was consummated:

Matthew 1:18 - This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 1:24-25 - When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Luke 1:26-27 - In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

Matthew 1:19-20 - Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

It’s interesting to note that the above verses ALL either say that Mary and Joseph were “pledged to be married”, or that Joseph TOOK HER HOME TO BE his wife. So contrary to what many state and firmly believe, the Bible does NOT refer to them as being married, even though they had entered into a contractual obligation to BE married. However, Matthew 1:19 does refer to Joseph as Mary’s husband and says that he considered “divorcing” her, which obviously indicates the seriousness of breaking off a betrothal in that day, because it was just as disgraceful as divorce, especially if there was ONLY one lawful reason for it. But even if that assumption were true, NOTHING written there indicates that a man doesn’t have the same right if the same kind of behavior (sexual immorality and indecency or fornication) occurs AFTER the marriage has been consummated. And Matthew 1:19-20 (AMP) actually says And her [promised] husband Joseph, being a just and upright man and not willing to expose her publicly and to shame and disgrace her, decided to repudiate and dismiss (divorce) her quietly and secretly. But as he was thinking this over, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary [as] your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of (from, out of) the Holy Spirit. So even though the period of betrothal in Jesus’ time was a much more significant and binding obligation than engagements today, it’s quite a stretch to say it was the same thing as being married based on what the above scriptures themselves actually say. Then the most common argument used to support the opinion that Matthew 19:1-9 does not make provision for remarriage even if adultery was the cause for divorce, is the use of the word porneia in the original text, instead of the word moicheia, which they believe has a very limited definition and refers ONLY to sex before marriage. In Addition to not being true based on how the word is used elsewhere in the Bible, the word moicheia doesn’t appear in this passage at all, and since that’s the ONLY word they believe means adultery as we understand it, the whole meaning of the passage is turned on its head; because to accept their definition, the only other meaning would have to be that anyone guilty of fornication (any kind of sexual behavior outside of marriage - based on their limited definition) could NEVER get married! But here’s what it actually says:
When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
In addition to misstating the meaning of porneia, based on it’s use throughout the Bible, it takes very strange logic to conclude that this passage does not refer to a man and woman who are married, and already in a “consummated” one flesh relationship and LIVING together, because the passage itself makes no sense otherwise. If that were not so, we’d have to believe the Pharisees were only asking about betrothed couples, because that’s the only way Jesus’ answer would have applied just to couples who were not living together and who had not yet consummated their marriage. But since a man and woman did NOT leave their parents’ house to live together as husband and wife UNTIL AFTER the time of betrothal had passed and THEY WERE MARRIED, and Jesus would have known that’s what the Pharisees were talking about, He wouldn’t have made a reference to leaving mother and father…UNLESS He WAS talking about couples that were already married and living together. And since the Bible makes it very clear that a man and woman are made one through sexual union, there seems little doubt that Jesus could have been talking exclusively about betrothed couples! And IF the women referred to in this passage were still living with their parents, wouldn’t it be rather difficult for their husbands to “send them away” as stated in the original question? So, by examining the actual words of this particular passage of scripture (and reviewing the custom and law spelled out in the Old Testament), there is NO reasonable and logical basis for concluding that Jesus was NOT talking about married couples just as we think of married couples today and not just women who were expected to be virgins on their wedding night.

And just as a note of further interest and information; the following verses are the only two places in the New Testament where the word moicheia (the only word some consider adultery) as we understand it today) appears:

Matthew 15:19 - For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

Mark 7:21-22 - For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.

Also, for anyone interested in a better understanding of the “porneia” vs. “moicheia” debate, I found this link which has a very detailed description and explanation of the differences and distinction made between porneia and moicheia, which is what I believe anyone concluding that there are no grounds for divorce and remarriage fails to understand, in addition to all of the other reasons stated above that it’s not logical to conclude that adultery is not grounds for divorce based on what Jesus taught in Matthew 19:1-9.

Having said all of the above, I have absolutely NO doubt that the Lord ALWAYS prefers and desires forgiveness and marriage restoration, because He hates divorce and the irreparable harm it causes, especially for the children. But I also find no reasonable basis to deny that Jesus’ own words make divorce and remarriage an option if for some reason forgiveness and restoration are not possible when our spouses have committed adultery. And that might well be because Jesus knew that the day would come when adulterers would no longer be put to death, which at that time meant the surviving spouse would be free to remarry. Knowing what we do about the nature and character of God, it seems very unlikely that His just and righteous judgment would ever require injured and abandoned parties to suffer loss or negative consequences due to the grace now extended to their adulterous spouses because in His mercy, their lives are spared. And I believe we do a great disservice to the Word of God and His intent when we try to relegate its relevance and meaning only to the time it was written, because God knows EVERYTHING from the beginning to the end and His Word is written accordingly, which means Jesus knew the day would come when those caught in adultery would no longer be put to death.

In the past few days, the Lord has brought it to my attention that we probably need to revisit the “basics” of marriage restoration more often than we tend to, and there’s nothing more basic or more important when standing for the restoration of our marriages than having the confidence that comes with the knowledge that it’s what God wants us to do. And even though most of us might not struggle with “hearing” from God about standing for the restoration of our marriages and families, many people do, especially new Christians. And some of the terminology we use just adds to the confusion, especially when we say things like “God told me to stand for my marriage.” Or “I know God called me to stand for my marriage.” And we often tell people they need to “hear from God”. But sometimes that causes new Christians standing for marriage restoration to doubt or question what they’re doing, because they think they have to hear the audible voice of God, or that we experienced some kind of amazing supernatural communication from the Lord telling us that He was going to restore our marriages. And even though some standers are blessed with testimonies like that, more than likely it WON’T happen that way to most of us.

And even though this is not a very complicated issue for those standing for the restoration of first marriages, it’s not so simple for those like me who are standing for a subsequent marriage, and ignoring or denying that accomplishes no good purpose. Yet, because it is not what some of us want to hear, it’s often swept under the carpet or not addressed at all. Or it’s discussed in vague terms intended to leave the interpretation open to meet the desires and needs of those who hear it. Sadly, that’s exactly what 2 Timothy 4:3 foretold, because it says For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. But if we believe what John 8:31-32 tells us, we know that’s not in our best interest when we want to hear from God and we’re seeking the truth, because it says To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” So perhaps the reason we don’t revisit the “basics” very often is because even though it is very good news for many, we know it could be painful or discouraging for others. But the bottom line for all of us is that whatever we do, it must be based on what the Bible teaches, because God will NEVER call us to do something contrary to His written word, and we’ll never hear anything from Him that is contrary to what is written in the Bible. So even though I feel led to share this message to provide assurance and encouragement for those standing for the restoration of their first marriages, it’s not possible to do that without at least acknowledging how it may impact anyone standing for subsequent marriages, which I will address later, though only in a very limited fashion. So I pray now for the Lord to speak and minister to all of us through the power of His word and the power of the Holy Spirit as we examine what His word teaches us about how He views marriage and divorce, and how we can be certain that He WILL work with us against the forces of hell for the restoration of our marriages, and that it does NOT take a supernatural experience to KNOW that God hates divorce and that it is always His will to see our troubled marriages restored, even though He may permit remarriage in certain circumstances.

First, we need to understand what Jesus told us about God’s plan and intention concerning marriage and divorce, as he very clearly stated and revealed in Matthew 19:1-9:
When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.
I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

While Jesus made God’s position on marriage and divorce, and when God considers remarriage adultery, so clear and simple in the above verses, it has still become a matter of great controversy and conflict in the Christian church today, even though the following verses make it just as clear that God HAS NOT changed his mind (AND NEVER WILL) about marriage and divorce, regardless of ANY other scripture, because NO passage of scripture can EVER be interpreted to mean something totally contrary to another passage:

Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

1 Samuel 15:29
He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind.”

James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Obviously, from the very beginning, AND NOW, God intended the marriage relationship to be a “one flesh” covenant relationship, where a man and a woman would forsake their mothers and fathers to be joined together and that they are then NO LONGER TWO, but one, AND He said that NO MAN or woman SHOULD SEPARATE them after that union. Period! That means that NO wisdom, NO plan, NO insight, and NO law or judge can succeed against the will of God and separate or put asunder what HE has joined together. So that should be enough to settle once and for all the question of God’s will and make it clear that He always wants and prefers us to stand for the restoration of our marriages, meaning that’s a question we don’t really have to ask. And even though it’s also clear that God does NOT consider remarriage after divorce adultery if adultery was the cause for divorce, there’s no doubt that He would prefer that our hearts not be hardened and that we would choose to forgive the sin of adultery instead of using our spouses’ sin to justify divorce, because He hates divorce and the pain it causes. And we know that because Malachi 2:15-16 (NKJV) tells us that God hates divorce and confirms what Jesus said about how God sees it, because it says:
But did He not make them one, Having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, And let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. “For the LORD God of Israel says That He hates divorce, For it covers one’s garment with violence,” Says the LORD of hosts. “Therefore take heed to your spirit, That you do not deal treacherously.”
Not only does that confirm what Jesus said about the one flesh relationship of marriage; it also graphically illustrates God’s understanding of the violent harm caused by the agonizing pain of marital separation and when marriages and families are put asunder by divorce, which is why He says He hates divorce and warns us against committing such treachery. And Malachi 2:13-14 demonstrates the VERY strong stand God takes AGAINST divorce and those who divorce their spouses, and how we CAN count on HIM to act as THE witness on our behalf, because it says Another thing you do: You flood the LORD’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD is acting as the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. So let’s not forget the awesome promise we have in Romans 8:31, which says What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?…because God’s quite obviously NOT on the side of anyone seeking or causing divorce!

So when we truly understand God’s plan and intention for marriage as a one flesh relationship, how much He HATES divorce and that HE is the one acting as the witness to our marriage vows as we stand for the restoration of our marriages, we will have the confidence we need to trust and rely on God to do everything He promises in the following verses:

John 14:13
And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.

John 15:7
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

John 15:16
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

John 16:23
In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

Then in addition to knowing that we’re in the will of God, which IS a requirement for asking something in the name of Jesus, when we decide to stand for the restoration of our marriages, the following verses assure us of His power and ability to bring His will to pass:

Isaiah 55:10-11
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Isaiah 46:10-11
I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.

While all of the above passages of scripture are sure to provide great and encouraging words for anyone standing for the restoration of a clearly covenant marriage (first marriage for both husband and wife), they may just as easily be very disheartening and discouraging words for someone standing for the restoration of a marriage not meeting that criteria, especially when adultery was not the reason for divorce in earlier marriages for either the husband or wife. And no matter how painful or difficult it is, these ARE questions that we have to address in our own relationship and communion with the Lord, because if we have any doubts about whether or not the Lord is behind us as we stand for the restoration of our marriages, we can be absolutely certain Satan will do his best to use them to discourage and defeat us at every opportunity. That’s why when standing for subsequent marriages, it is especially important to spend time seriously studying the Bible along with a lot of prayer and fasting, because that’s one time when successfully standing for marriage restoration WILL probably require hearing something supernaturally from the Lord. The best way to make the point needed here is to share the testimony of two women I’ve ministered to who were standing for the restoration of second marriages.

The first woman was divorced twice, with adult children from her first marriage, and young children from her second marriage. She divorced her first husband because she wasn’t happy and felt he was verbally abusive and they were both Christians. Her second husband had divorced her because he was involved with another woman, but she was standing for the restoration of that marriage. The first night I talked to her, the Holy Spirit told me that I HAD to tell her that she was standing for the wrong marriage (at that time I didn’t know everything I’ve just shared about her situation), and to my total surprise, she didn’t get angry when I did! Her spirit recognized the truth of what I was led to say and she accepted that she’d just be single for the rest of her life, because she said she could not go back to her first husband, even though he was still standing for their marriage. Since that time, her second husband has married the other woman and they have a child together, but she still has no relationship with her first husband, and we still keep in touch with each other. She is at peace and enjoying her kids as she focuses on being a single mother.

The second woman married a divorced man, who to the best of her knowledge did not have biblical grounds to divorce his first wife and remarry. But that was her first marriage and they had one young child together when he divorced her. When the opportunity presented itself as the result of her continual questions about whether or not she was supposed to stand for her marriage, I gently pointed out that she probably didn’t have a covenant marriage in the first place, and since she was pretty sure her husband was involved with another woman, she would certainly have biblical grounds for release from the marriage and to remarry. She was always very strongly opposed to that though, so I never pushed it, other than reminding her once in awhile when she’d end up questioning it all over again, because as I tell myself and everyone else, when we’ve really heard from the Lord about something, we should have peace about it and it should be fully settled in our own hearts, minds and spirits, and when it’s not, something is wrong. We had similar conversations on a fairly regular basis and then one day recently, when her husband came to pick up their little one, he was wearing a wedding ring! Well, it certainly seems like that would be enough to help her “move on”, which is what she initially decided she would do. But that didn’t last long because after really crying out to the Lord and seeking answers, she was back to standing again! She is absolutely convinced she has heard from God and that He wants her to stand for her marriage. And it’s difficult to deny that the reasons she has appear to come from the Lord, even though that makes NO sense based on what we know and what the word says, which means she’s got to be wrong, or there’s something the Lord knows that we don’t know! For instance, what if the first wife had committed adultery, whether the husband knew about it or not. Or what if the first wife dies prematurely? So no one can tell this woman or anyone else that she hasn’t heard from the Lord just because we question it or don’t understand how such a stand can be in agreement with the word. Personally, I know I’ve shared the word with her, and she knows what it says, yet she still feels very strongly that the Lord is calling her to stand for her marriage. In the meanwhile, she’s focusing on her relationship with the Lord, enjoying witnessing opportunities the Lord is providing and raising her little one. She also has peace and is content to stand for her marriage, which she has made a commitment to do by remaining single or reconciling with her husband, which is what I did so many years ago.

While there are many questions and controversies that could easily be covered here, the important point is that God always wants marriages to be restored and He hates divorce, so it doesn’t take some kind of supernatural word from Him to know that He’d prefer us to stand for our marriages. And when we take a stand for something we know is in keeping with His written word, we have absolute assurance that He will stand with us and bring His word and will to pass. And if the marriage we’re standing for is not our first, when we diligently seek the Lord, He WILL answer us and give us the answers we need.

Since last Friday’s message from Marsha Burns seems so appropriate to include here, I hope you’ll be blessed and encouraged by it:
December 22, 2006: Let your heart be prepared to always have a hearty “amen and amen” to My word, to My instructions, and to My wisdom, says the Lord. Never hesitate to accept My truth and guidance even when your circumstances seem to be beyond help. The difficulty of a situation never alters truth, nor does it negate My word or power to bring you through. Refuse to allow fear or discouragement to cause your faith to be ineffective.
2 Corinthians 1:20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
You can read Small Straws by Marsha Burns at this link or sign up to receive her awesome messages by email each day.

I just want to share something posted by Cindy on the FAM Fellowship private website today, which I know will truly bless everyone that made contributions to the FAM Christmas Blessings Fund!

Again, I want to thank all of you for donating for my son’s Christmas….The Lord was faithful to answer my prayers to protect my son, and he was brought home to me unexpectedly last night. They called me and told me they were in town and they were bringing him home. I had the presents under the tree and he walked in and said “Oh….Oh….It’s a Christmas Miracle!” He turned around and hugged me and said thank you. His little friend came over today and he met her at the door and pointed to the presents and said, “Look at the Christmas miracle!” Thank you so much again for putting a smile on his face and joy in our home…..God bless and Merry Christmas.

While I may be fairly well versed most of the time, I’m truly at a loss to express the depth of my appreciation and gratitude for the generosity of the FAM Fellowship members and visitors to our website who so generously blessed Crystal and Cindy and their children this Christmas, which otherwise would have been pretty bleak. And you did it with very little notice! I know the Lord will bless each an every one of you in some special way for your kindness and generosity, and I’m sure the following messages from both ladies will be a blessing too. And just so you know, I instructed both women to make sure they got something for themselves too; something they wouldn’t otherwise spend the money for, even if it was nothing more than body lotion and bubble bath! And even though she doesn’t mention it, Cindy’s getting a professional haircut for herself later this week, which is something she hasn’t been able to do for a long time! So the following messages of thanks and appreciation are from Crystal and Cindy for your generous gifts:

I would just like to thank each and every one of you for the gifts and blessings you gave my children and me this Christmas. It is people like you that bring joy to my heart and home. We are so overwhelmed with happiness. My daughter (11) was able to get two pairs of shoes, clothes, and a bracelet with her name on it. My two sons (14) each bought two pairs of shoes and clothes as well. I was able to purchase myself a Bible
that I’ve always wanted; I have dozens of Bibles, but it was this particular one I wanted, an outfit, a bracelet with my name on it, and yes, Linda, I even got the body lotion and splash. I just can’t say how much I truly thank you all for your kind hearts. May God bestow blessings on all of you.
Thank You,
Crystal, Kenne’, Devante and Jarvis

I just wanted to take the time to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the Christmas donations you sent in for my son (7). He is not back yet from the mountains*, so that will give me time to get prepared. I got him a remote control dinosaur, a Star Wars laser, a Hot Wheels launcher for his cars and a Star Wars transformer. He will be so excited. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart. I hope that all of you have true peace that can only come from Jesus this Christmas Day and I pray that all of your families are restored…..that would be the best gift of all. Thanks for making a child’s Christmas with his mom one to remember. God Bless, Cindy in Texas

*Cindy’s husband and new wife took her son to the mountains for Christmas and they’re able to lavish gifts and exciting experiences on him that Cindy can’t possibly compete with due to very limited finances, which is often quite painful for her. And since it seemed so wrong to me for any mother to feel that she has to compete to be special in her child’s life, especially when she can’t, I got the idea of making a difference this time, and that’s how the Christmas Blessings Fund was started. When her son left, there were only two presents under the tree, which he had already compared to how many were under the tree at his dad’s, so he’ll be VERY surprised when he comes home and sees all of the awesome presents Jesus left for him while he was away!

And a blessing I wish you all could share is the joy and happiness I’ve heard in both women’s voices as the result of your generosity and how it blessed them and their children! It would really make your hearts feel good, just as it has mine! Thanks again, and may the Lord richly bless you all!

When I woke up this morning, the Lord put the following poem on my heart, so I hope it will be a blessing and glorify our most beloved Jesus! And I wish all of you the Merriest Christmas and the Happiest New Year, which it will be if we contemplate on the wonders of the first Christmas instead of the things of this world which grow strangely dim in the light and power of our Savior’s amazing love! So be blessed and encouraged!

When contemplating all the wonders of that first Christmas Day,
It’s far from easy to find the right words to say!
For that was certainly earth’s most glorious day,
Because it was when Jesus came to show the way!
And defying the dark of night, it was an incredibly bright day,
As the star’s guiding light shone where He lay!
So without a doubt, it was in reality a high holy day,
That put the splendor of God’s love on full display!
Because it was His own Son He sent to us on that most remarkable Day,
As a shepherd to keep His beloved sheep from being led astray!
And even though He was the King of Kings, it appeared to be anything but a royal day,
Because our precious Lord and Savior was laid in a manger filled with hay!
Yet the three wise men and shepherds still recognized the miracle of that blessed day,
As they came to Jesus with gifts, honor and respect to pay!
But the greatest wonder of all on that supernaturally victorious day,
Was that Jesus came to wash all of our sins away!
And He brought the hope of going to heaven with Him one awesome day,
Where He promised there for all of eternity with Him we will stay!
So to honor Jesus, our Lord and Savior, on this happiest of ANY birth day,
We thank Him and praise Him for His love and salvation as we pray!

–by Linda Wattu

Everyone standing for marriage restoration certainly knows ALL about what happens when love is tested, because we’ve all experienced it as we’ve faced the trials of marital separation and divorce, and maybe even when our spouses’ have remarried. And even though that probably seems like the toughest test of love we’ll ever face, it isn’t; because the most difficult and most significant test of love we ever face is when the love we have for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is tested. And standing for the restoration of our marriages will certainly put the love and faith we have in Jesus to the test!

Joyce Meyer’s TV broadcast message today was one of the most hard hitting I’ve ever heard from her, and that’s really saying something since she’s never one for holding back the punches! She talked about not taking offense or being angry with God during difficult times, and the first scripture reference she used was about when John The Baptist questioned if Jesus was who he thought he was. And that really caught my attention, because I had thought of that earlier in the week when I went to see “The Nativity and it showed how John leapt in his mother’s womb when Mary called out to Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-45). I couldn’t help wondering how it was possible for him to have recognized Jesus then, and then again later when he baptized Him; even seeing the Holy Spirit descend upon Him in the form of a dove and hearing God say that Jesus was His Son whom He loved and in whom He was well pleased (Matthew 3:13-17), and then later doubt who Jesus was! Yet, that’s exactly what happened, according to Matthew 11:1-6 (AMP), which says:
WHEN JESUS had finished His charge to His twelve disciples, He left there to teach and to preach in their [Galilean] cities.
Now when John in prison heard about the activities of Christ, he sent a message by his disciples And asked Him, Are You the One Who was to come, or should we keep on expecting a different one?
And Jesus replied to them, Go and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed (by healing) and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have good news (the Gospel) preached to them. And blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) is he who takes no offense at Me and finds no cause for stumbling in or through Me and is not hindered from seeing the Truth.

But as sad as it is to say, way too many of us are just like John, because when He was in prison, instead of believing what he had seen with his own eyes, he doubted Jesus and questioned what he had seen, even though he had personally witnessed such an awesome supernatural miracle! And when things don’t seem to be going the way we want, believe, or expect, it’s too easy to question what we believe and whether or not we can trust God or if we ever heard from Him in the first place. So I KNOW most of us can relate to how John felt, because we all have to face and work through similar questions and doubts at some time or another as we stand for the restoration of our marriages. But Jesus understands that too, because John 13:7, says Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”. So we have to decide if we’ll give way to what comes naturally to us, or if we will put our faith and trust in the Lord and wait to see what He’s doing, even if it kills us literally or figuratively. Don’t forget, Jesus told us we’d have to pick up our cross daily to follow Him! But that’s a part of being a Christian most of us don’t want to hear, and many of us find putting our trust and faith in the Lord more than ever when things are NOT going the way we want way too much to ask. But I can’t help wondering if John The Baptist would have experienced a different outcome if he had not doubted the Lord, because James 1:2-8 tells us:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
Even though we have a difficult time understanding that about God’s nature and character, it is so clearly demonstrated throughout the Bible, and perhaps never more clearly than the outcome Job experienced just because he said that even if the Lord killed him, he’d still praise Him! And that’s the attitude God wants and expects us to have, which is why it is so important to stand for our marriages as a matter of obedience to God and not just because we want God to restore our marriages. Don’t forget, God knows what is in our hearts and we can’t fool Him! In fact John 20:24-29 gives us an awesome illustration of that, because it says:
Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Even though this message from Joyce may be very difficult and possibly unsettling for some, it’s a very important one for everyone standing for marriage restoration to listen to and understand, because we may need to ask ourselves some important questions to make sure we have the right attitude and that we’re not allowing disappointment, bitterness and anger toward God to hinder the work of restoration He wants to do in our marriages and families. So please take the time to listen to Don’t Be Offended By Trouble, and learn from it to be blessed and encouraged by love and faith and confidence in the Lord!

The Lord has really put it on my heart in the past few days that as we stand for the restoration of our marriages, it’s very important for us to know and keep in mind that the battle IS ALREADY WON, and that EVERYTHING we see in the meanwhile is just the process by which the Lord will get it accomplished, and NEVER evidence or an indication of the outcome! Yet, almost without exception, we tend to lose sight of that, because we are too focused on what’s happening “in the meanwhile”! So the following passages of scripture are just a few that came to my mind or which I found as I contemplated that further:

1 Samuel 17:47
All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

2 Chronicles 20:15
He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the LORD says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.

2 Chronicles 20:17
You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.’ “

2 Chronicles 32:8
With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said.

Romans 8:28-31
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Isaiah 55:10-11
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Isaiah 46:11
From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.

So it’s up to us to make a very intentional and deliberate decision to take God at HIS word and put our faith and confidence in Him and the promises found in the Bible, instead of allowing every word or incident concerning our husbands (or wives) to make us believe otherwise. Either we believe in the power of God, or we don’t. Either we believe what His word says or we don’t. And there are NO options in between. And if we don’t make a determined decision to believe and trust the Lord and to put our faith and confidence in Him and what His word teaches, we won’t be able to trust Him and commit to doing things HIS way, and that means we can NOT rely on the awesome promises found in Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV), which says Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths., or Psalm 37:5-6, which says Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

Any time the devil uses our circumstances or the actions and words of our spouses to convince us that God will not or can not do what His word promises, we have to take those thoughts captive IMMEDIATELY, just like Paul told us in 2 Corinthians 10:5, which says We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And the best way to do that is to follow the example Jesus set when the devil tempted Him. No matter what Satan said to Him, He just answered back with scripture and told Him “it is written”. And that’s certainly an awesome demonstration of the power of God’s written word and the power we access when we learn to answer Satan with it and speak it into our situations; because Satan just gave up and left! So when we want Satan to leave us alone and stop torturing us with thoughts totally contrary to the word, we have to speak and affirm applicable passages of scripture, because that releases awesome power into our lives and situations. And we have to STOP speaking words contrary to everything we say we’re standing for and trusting the Lord to bring to pass, because Proverbs 18:20-21 (AMP) tells us A man’s [moral] self shall be filled with the fruit of his mouth; and with the consequence of his words he must be satisfied [whether good or evil]. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life]. And Romans 4:17 (AMP) says As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. [He was appointed our father] in the sight of God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that [He has foretold and promised] as if they [already] existed.

Hopefully, the following verses will help remind us of whose will is going to be done in the end, because there’s NO WAY it will be that of our husbands or wives when their will is so contrary to the written word of God, and we can’t ever let anything they SAY OR DO convince us otherwise! So we need to memorize some of these verses and speak them out loud the next time Satan tries to convince us that God can not or will not win this battle, because it IS HIS battle and not ours:

Proverbs 20:24
A man’s steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way?

Proverbs 21:1
The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.

Proverbs 16:9
In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

Proverbs 16:1
To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue.

And since “The Valley Of Dry Bones is an awesome illustration of what it means to stand on God’s word when trusting the Lord to breathe life into our dead marriages, we might need to read Ezekiel 37:1-14 often, so we can understand the significance of phrases like “This is what the Sovereign LORD says…Then you will know that I am the LORD” and “Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.” And we don’t EVER want to forget Proverbs 21:30-31, because it says There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD. The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the LORD. The battle IS already won, so be blessed and encouraged as you rely and STAND on the written word of God!

So far we have a total of $480.00 going to the two families we requested assistance for yesterday. A total of $350.00 will be going to a disabled woman with three chhildren in AL and $130.00 will be going to a woman with a young son in TX. There’s no way I can adequately express my personal gratitude and appreciation for the generosity of our FAM members and other visitors to the site, who have made this a much brighter Christmas for these families! I feel very blessed to have you all as part of the FAM Ministries family and I know the Lord will bless you all in very special ways. I didn’t make it to the Post Office this afternoon, so it’s still possible to send additional gifts tonight by PayPal or to call me at 850-391-4073 for mailing addresses. I’ll be overnighting Money Orders for the funds sent to the ministry in the morning! Love you all so much and thank you for making this possible! May the Lord keep you and your families and richly bless you all!

One of the most important and difficult things to accomplish when initially ministering to women standing for marriage restoration is convincing them to stop focusing on what their husbands have done (and are doing) wrong long enough to see what they did and are still doing to contribute to the demise of their marriages. But as Satan usually manages to do with all of us, he doesn’t pass up any opportunity to bring self-condemnation once our eyes are opened to our own faults and failures, which is why I REALLY appreciated Joyce Meyer’s TV broadcast message so much this morning.

While Jesus tells us to deal with our own sin, faults and mistakes before worrying about those of others (Matthew 7:3-5), We also have to love and forgive ourselves the same way we do others, which is why it’s so important to take to heart what Jesus said in Matthew 22:36-40, which says “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Simply and incredibly put, Jesus was telling us that ALL of the rewards, blessings, provisions and protection promised in the Bible hinge on and are summed up in those two commandments, which obviously means we should pay them a whole LOT more attention than we tend to. Yet, when most people summarize what Jesus said, they just say the part about loving the Lord with all our hearts, souls and minds, and loving our neighbors, leaving off the part about as we love ourselves.. But Jesus in His infinite and perfect wisdom, new that without loving ourselves, it is not possible to truly love others. And based on 1 John 4:16, we know that without God it’s not possible to love at all, because it says And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. And as incredible as it is, 1 John 4:10 says This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. That means that loving God requires us to first accept that He loved us enough to send His son as a sacrifice to atone for our sin, which makes perfect sense, because we know that’s the FIRST step of salvation! Yet so many people struggle with really accepting the literal consequences of Jesus’ sacrifice when Satan is trying to steal their peace, joy and victory, even though that’s the very thing they HAD to believe to become a Christian in the first place. That’s why I some times offend women who have such a difficult time with forgiveness and struggle so much with issues of self-condemnation, by asking them to revisit and consider whether or not they’re really saved. Because if we truly believe, understand and accept that Jesus shed His precious and sinless blood at Calvary for the remission and forgiveness of our sin, which is required for salvation, we have no reason to feel condemnation for something Jesus died to cover in His atoning blood. If we accept and acknowledge the sacrifice, how can we then reject its purpose?

So the first step to overcoming self-condemnation is understanding and accepting the blood sacrifice of our Lord and Savior and then applying it and allowing it to cleanse away ALL of the guilt and shame, regret, sorrow and remorse we feel over our sin. Then it’s not so easy to accept self-condemnation for what we know Jesus died to atone for. And receiving and experiencing the awesome grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior is what teaches us to love Him with all our hearts, souls and minds, and that makes it very difficult to then fail to extend the same grace and mercy to those who hurt and disappoint us, which makes it a lot easier to love them as we love ourselves, as Jesus commanded us to do. The following verses are just a few that help us gain a better understanding of God’s love and how it works in our lives to bring deliverance, salvation and restoration:

Ephesians 2:3-5
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

Joel 2:13
Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”

Romans 8:39
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Corinthians 2:9
However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” —

Hebrews 6:10
God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.

1 John 4:9
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

And living through Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to really have the abundant life John 10:10 says He came to give us. And 1 Peter 5:10 (AMP) even tells us And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace [Who imparts all blessing and favor], Who has called you to His [own] eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen, and settle you. So it ALWAYS comes back to our willingness and determination to submit and surrender our own will and ways to be good FROGs, FULLY RELIANT ON GOD, and that’s for EVERYTHING, including the changes we know He wants to make in us. That’s why I really appreciated Joyce’s message, Are You Offending Yourself? - Part I, so much this morning. She talked about something we hardly ever hear about, and that’s not offending our own spirit, which IS exactly what we do when we accept condemnation instead of the love, power, mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. So please listen to it, especially if Satan has been stealing the peace, joy and victory Jesus came to give you, and be blessed and encouraged!

Choosing a topic for today’s post has been very challenging, as well as finding the time to write it, but after debating and considering several topics, and even having one post substantially completed only to lose it when my computer totally locked up, it seems praising the Lord is the only thing I want to do after all! And there IS SO much reason for rejoicing and giving Him praise, honor and glory today!

First, I can’t possibly express how touched I am by the generosity and willingness of total strangers to reach out and bless the two families I requested assistance for on the site earlier today. FAM Ministries is truly fortunate to have so many wonderful people involved with the ministry, and I can’t tell you all how blessed I feel that the Lord has brought each and every one of you into our ministry family! I know you will each be blessed in a very special way for the kindness and generosity you’ve blessed these ladies and their kids with. So I’ve asked both ladies to give us testimonies to share on the site after Christmas about how our gifts blessed them and their children, which is something I know we’ll all look forward to! Also, both ladies were very touched and humbled that people who don’t even know them and their kids would be so kind and generous, and one of the ladies even told me to give all of the money to the other family, which, of course, I told her wasn’t going to happen! While every gift is very special and greatly appreciated, one in particular really touched my heart, which I’m sure all of you ladies will appreciate the significance of as well, because we received $100.00 tonight from a male visitor to the website. And even though I ask the Lord to bless everyone’s generosity, I ask for a very special blessing for a man we don’t even know who is willing to step up and stand in the gap to help compensate for the unwillingness of two other men to be as concerned about the happiness of their wives and children as he is despite being a total stranger! So thanks to all of you for your wonderful support and participation in FAM Ministries and our desire to help make this a very special Christmas for the families!

As I witness the Lord’s hand at work in the lives and marriages of our members, I am so much in awe and can’t help feeling like one of the most blessed people on the face of the earth just to be part of something so amazing and wonderful! It seems like we’ve made some kind of breakthrough in the spiritual realm and things are happening at a very fast and unexpected pace! I received two awesome praise reports from ladies today who are both still feeling a degree of shock, because of how totally unexpected the changes were and how totally different reality ended up being from everything human reasoning and understanding was leading them to believe! So I fully expect to hear restored marriage testimonies from both of them SOON, and we know their kids couldn’t possibly receive better Christmas presents than that!

The wonderful testimonies and praise reports from both of these ladies absolutely prove and confirm that there’s NO way to overstate the incredible importance and significance of Proverbs 3:5-6, this time from The Amplified Bible, because it says Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths. And I can assure you that both of these ladies would be the first to say how challenging and difficult they’ve found that to walk out in their lives over the past couple of weeks.

In fact, it was probably less than two weeks ago when one of the lady’s husbands told her that there was absolutely NOTHING he liked about her…NOTHING, and that one day he was just going to do what HE wanted to do, no matter what anyone thought about it, which was a reference to leaving her for the NCP! It took super human strength to ignore what he said and take those thoughts and hurtful words captive, making them obedient to Christ and the promise in HIS word instead of leaning on her own natural understanding of the situation based on what she was hearing and seeing! And now, in less than two weeks, there appears to be a TOTALLY unexpected and unexplainable turn around! And I have NO doubt it is BECAUSE she made a very deliberate decision to trust the Lord and do things HIS way instead of relying on what her husband and heart were telling her!

Then the other woman was the one I wrote about last week who was considering taking her husband to court to establish visitation guidelines, only to have him call her very broken and distraught the next day! But then everything seemed to be wonderful in his corner of the world again, with no further signs of the broken man she talked to that day, which meant she really had to resist the natural instinct and inclination to lean to her own understanding, which would have led to nothing but TOTALLY WRONG conclusions! She and her husband talked very openly and honestly for a long time today, and she discovered that the situation with the NCP was NOTHING AT ALL like her vivid imagination had misled her to believe! He expressed great remorse, shame, disbelief and guilt for having put his family through everything he’s done, and was able to very honestly and openly describe the hold the NCP has on him. And I couldn’t help being very impressed with the way this woman responded in GENUINE love, honor and respect for her husband, creating a greatly needed atmosphere of grace that will enable him to experience the redemption he is so much in need of now, and then the restoration of their marriage can follow. And NOTHING but the grace and power of our Lord and Savior makes that possible! But once again, she had to resist the natural inclination to analyze everything and try to make sense of things that just didn’t make sense. Instead, she trusted the Lord and did what HE told her to do even when it was the last thing she felt like doing!

So when the devil tries to torture us with thoughts of anything that does not glorify the Lord, we have to remember and practice the wisdom of Proverbs 3:5-6, and refuse to rely on our own understanding, putting all our trust in the Lord instead, and doing everything HIS way instead of the way our flesh wants us to do things, which is almost always CONTRARY to the word! Just as both of the ladies have seen and experienced in such a significant and powerful way, what we think we know most of the time is completely wrong anyway, which is exactly why the Lord told us NOT to try to figure everything out on our own. Not only that, it doesn’t even matter if what we think is true IS true, because God can change ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING! That’s what it means to trust in Him with ALL of our hearts!

Hopefully, sharing these praise reports and testimonies will help everyone understand the importance of keeping our eyes on the power and glory of Jesus Christ and ignoring EVERYTHING else we see and hear. In the end, what God says is what goes, and when we believe that, it should be a lot easier for us to have the attitudes that will draw our husbands back to us instead of sending them elsewhere for what was lacking in us in the first place. As one of the ladies told me today, the change in her husband didn’t come until she started sincerely asking the Lord to reveal what needed to be changed in her instead of worrying so much about her husband. And that reminded me of how the Lord led me to the passage about dealing with the plank in our own eye before trying to remove the speck in our husbands’ eye, and THEN we’ll be able to help him remove the speck from his eye. And even more significant is remembering that He showed me that in terms of the study I did on spiritual warfare and taking every thought captive, which just confirms what she shared. You can read about that again in The Importance Of Taking Every Thought Captive. So PRAISE THE LORD, and be blessed and encouraged!

I know this is very short notice, but it has come to my attention in the past few days that two of the women in our ministry don’t have money to buy Christmas presents for their children, and the Lord put it on my heart to ask our other members to help do something about it by donating money (or gift cards) to help make this a special and memorable Christmas for these families. The absent husbands and fathers appear to be unconcerned or unaware of this particular unintended consequence for their children, so this gives us a unique opportunity to make a difference in the lives of two women and their four children, ages 7, 11, and 14 (2).

When I found out about the first family, I asked the FAM members to help do something spectacular by matching the $50.00 donation I made personally, but now that there is another family, and since one of our members thought I had already done so and referred people interested in helping to the site, I’m now asking for donations from any visitors to the site who feel led to help make this a very special Christmas for these women and their children. Anyone led to bless them in such a way, can make donations through PayPal, with a notation that the donation is for our “Christmas Blessings Fund”, or call me at 1-850-391-4073 for the addresses of the ladies to send gifts to them directly. However, I want to coordinate those efforts to insure that the gifts are appropriately distributed between the two families. And remember, what we do for them, we do for Jesus, and what we give will be multiplied back to us many times over! Be blessed and I thank you in advance for your generous gifts to help bring smiles to the faces of these little ones in otherwise difficult times!

Trust and obey…just three simple words; yet they hold the key to everything we believe and hope for in Jesus. Even though we say and hear them often and they just roll off our tongues, I can’t help wondering how many of us truly understand what they mean and their vital necessity to us as Christians. I started thinking about this post and working on it after watching Dr. Charles Stanley’s message last Sunday about the role obedience played in Peter’s life, and I’ve really enjoyed the Bible study. But like most people who really understand it, I learned the significance of trust and obey through my own life experiences which PROVED to me beyond a shadow of doubt that there IS no other way to be happy in Jesus, just like the song says. And I can’t help wondering if it’s even possible to understand what trust and obey really means without the life experiences it takes to teach us.

It’s just not our nature to believe something without evidence or pretty good reason to believe it. We are naturally inquisitive and want answers, so we want to understand and know what is going on and why it’s going on, how long it will go on and how it will conclude. But all of that is totally contrary to trust in the sense God means it, because trust is synonymous with faith and believing, and one or more of those words are used in many of the Bible verses we rely on the most, especially as we stand for the restoration of our marriages.. But the best way to understand the awesome blessings and power it releases and what God thinks about trust is to read and study what His word tells us about it. And even though there were over 160 verses in the NIV with the word trust in them (according to BibleGateway.com), these are the ones that seem to help us gain the best understanding of trust, especially as it applies to our walk with the Lord as we stand for our marriages. Some may seem very similar or duplicated, but since that indicates their significance I included all of them. So please study them and meditate on them, taking the time to really consider each one:

Psalm 9:9-10
The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.

Psalm 13:5
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

Psalm 22:5
They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

Psalm 26:1
Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.

Psalm 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

Psalm 33:20-22
We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.

Psalm 37:5-6
Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

Psalm 56:3-4
When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid.

Psalm 84:11-12
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.

Psalm 91:1-3
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.

Psalm 112:7
He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.

Psalm 119:41-42
May your unfailing love come to me, O LORD, your salvation according to your promise; then I will answer the one who taunts me, for I trust in your word.

Psalm 143:8
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 16:20
Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.

Proverbs 29:25
Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.

Isaiah 26:3
You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.

Isaiah 28:16
So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.

Jeremiah 17:7
“But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.

Nahum 1:7
The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him,

Zephaniah 3:12
But I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust in the name of the LORD.

John 14:1
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.

Romans 9:33
As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

Romans 10:10-11
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 4:2
Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

1 Peter 2:6
For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

Wow! There’s an awful lot in those verses and they make it very clear why trust is such an important component of our walk and relationship with the Lord. However, if we’re not able to put our trust in Him and everything promised in His word, especially the above verses, we’ll probably find it very difficult to obey Him, because obedience, PRACTICING THE WORD, and not just hearing the word, almost always requires us to act contrary to our nature. But when we trust God and take Him at His word, we’ll understand why trust AND obey is SO important, and realize that we really don’t have a better option. The following verses help us understand how important obedience is in our lives as Christians, so it’s important to study and meditate on them too (over 220 verses contain obey):

Psalm 119:66-68
Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe in your commands. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word. You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees.

Psalm 119:101
i>I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word.

Ecclesiastes 8:5
Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure.

Isaiah 50:10
Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.< Jeremiah 7:22-23
For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.