It SHALL Come to Pass! by Christina in New Jersey
Hi All,
I want to share some awesome teaching I have been receiving from my pastor. He is teaching a series about pursuing our dreams. The way he is defining dreams is that they are the desires of your heart; your aspirations. He began by explaining that it is God who plants these desires in us and we know it is a God given dream/desire when 1) it is way bigger than something we can do on our own, and way beyond our current situation and has to happen supernaturally, 2) it’s consuming, meaning we have a passion to see it come to pass and no matter what happens, the desire doesn’t go away and 3) it causes us to come out of our comfort zone. And that sure does sound like standing for marriage restoration! And it was so important to me that my pastor explained that this is a God given desire or dream because unlike some, I didn’t “hear” a voice saying to stand or see a sign saying to stand as I drove along the highway; I just knew I woke up one day and wanted my marriage to be healed and restored more than anything I have wanted before in my life. And that was an unexplainable occurrence, especially since I was the one who initiated the separation and my husband had not changed who he was in any way.
My pastor also taught about what we should do while we wait for our dream to come to pass, which I found synonymous to standing. He taught from Psalm 37:3-7 (NKJV). Psalm 37:3 says to Trust in the Lord and do good. As we all know, trusting in God during this process is vital, but the verse also says and do good. And that means working on getting the yuk out, working in God’s kingdom, operating in the fruits of the spirit, showing compassion to others, etc. The verse goes on to say, “Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.” That means to remain steadfast in our stand, unmovable, not being tossed to and fro…decide to stand and STAY THERE! Don’t move, don’t give up and don’t become hopeless; Dwell. And while we are there, feed on His faithfulness. Remember all the signs of encouragement He has shown us while on our way to full restoration, meditate on and confess His Word and promises, and think about all the blessings we have in other areas of our lives…feed on His faithfulness; not our spouses’ actions or words.
Verse 4 then gives us further instruction and a wonderful promise. “Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.” So let’s delight to talk to Him in prayer, worship Him through words and song, turn on that praise music and let the praises of our King permeate the atmosphere and then He promises to give us the desires of our hearts, which is the restoration of our marriages!!!! Verse 5 states, “Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him…” So we are to commit our ways to the Lord, meaning to operate in His commandments and what His word tells us to do…Love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, Let there be no other gods before Him (including our spouses and marriages!), Love our neighbors as ourselves, Forgive those who trespass against us…Let go and let God! Then it tells us to trust again! God knew this was a tall order for us humans, so He pointed out that after we have truly committed our ways to Him, we need to be reminded to trust again! He’s got it under control. But here comes the rest of the verse with another awesome promise after we’ve committed our ways and continue trusting, “And He shall bring it to pass. The “it” is the desires of our hearts; our dreams and what we have been praying for! IT shall come to pass!!!
But it doesn’t stop there. Verse 6 says, “He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday.” So for all those times we eat humble pie, forgive, withstand rejection, deny our fleshly responses and walk the path of righteousness, God says “Don’t worry; your day is coming! Justice will be served, your righteousness shall shine forth as the light and your light will draw others, including your spouse to you!”
So as we do all that verses 3 through 6 teach us, we also need to do as the beginning of verse 7 says, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;”
Our marriage restorations are on their way. This is a desire God has given us and not only does he give us the desire, He brings what He has given us to desire to pass…just because He is that good, powerful and faithful and for the glory of Jesus Christ!
Be blessed and stay encouraged…for “it shall come to pass!”
This is one of my favorite psalms. A few Sundays ago, Charles Stanley preached on this as well and about the promises of God. This scripture comes to my mind often; God is definetly reminding me of His promise of marriage restoration, keeping my trust in Him, and delighting in Him. Thank you for sharing this. Verse 7 is also a must…wait patiently on Him and His timing; He knows when the perfect time for marriage restoration is. Also, we must not fret because we have given it to God. How awesome is He!
Thank you for this message of hope and praise for our God.. I thought of giving up, so I’ve been in prayer all day, and GOD heard my prayer. HE led me here right after I got home! Jo
Thank you for this post. I didn’t hear a voice telling me to stand either; I just knew it was what I needed to do, what I wanted to do, and what I should do. After that, I began to read the Word and found this website as well as others, and saw that I was doing what God wanted all along.
In case some of you remember my responses to earlier posts, I have been standing for almost two years now, and I was separated for one of those years and on and off again for five additional months. But my husband has been home for eight months now and even though it has been difficult at times, I persevered and found Godly friends and joined a church and a bible study group and prayed even harder than before. And in the last two months, I have seen major changes in my husband. He is more like himself, more caring, more affectionate and more at ease than when he first left. We are re-connecting and having date nights and spending time just watching movies on TV together. So I dare to say that our marriage is restored! And so does God! I see how my prayers have been answered in God’s timing, and I am so thankful for this website and the posts here. I come here daily, even though I never joined, but I am blessed by this ministry and the posts.
I got over feeling that I was a victim and worrying about how hurt I was by my husband, and changed my thinking. I FINALLY let God be God and let it go. I let my husband go and told God to “work in his life and to keep me sane as we go.” And He has!
When I start to worry, I cast my cares on God! And when I have trust issues, I can almost hear God saying “Trust ME.”
So, yes, wait patiently on God and HIS timing! His timing is perfect!
I know this post is old, but it is EXACTLY what I needed to read today and completely confirmed that standing for my marriage is God’s desire, and not some pipe-dream or way of denying the truth of my situation.
I have been legally divorced for three months and separated from my husband for almost a year. When the Lord spoke to me last February and told me to stop the sin I was living in (adultery), I didn’t know how to get my husband to forgive me or take me back. I tried for a VERY long time in my own strength, and it didn’t work, only made things worse and contributed to our eventual divorce in August.
All the while, even though I was encouraged by well-meaning friends, pastors, counselors etc, to let it go, give up and move on with my life, I just COULDN’T. But I finally realized that it wouldn’t be anything I do that would heal my marriage. I also had to realize that the countless prayers I prayed to change my husbands heart toward me, while valid, weren’t the only prayers I needed to be praying…that wasn’t the prominent requests I should have been making. I needed to pray for a change in MYSELF; and not just to be able to manipulate a change in my husband, but for an entire heart change to bring me into a closer relationship with God.
1 Corinthians 10:13 talks about how the Lord won’t allow us to be tempted beyond what we can handle, and He will always show us the way out, and that struck a cord with me. For so long, I looked at myself as a victim; like it was somehow unfair that my husband wouldn’t forgive me, and that God wasn’t immeadiently healing my marriage. So it caused great pain to finally accept and acknowledge that I had CHOSEN to sin; I had made the choices that led to the demise of my marriage. And the only person I truly needed to be concerned with right now was MYSELF. I needed to come into right relationship with the Lord and ask him to purge from me all of the rotten things that were poisoning my life.
Yet it’s been difficult to experience my husband getting further and further from me; even to the point of not speaking to me, answering my calls, texts or emails. He has entered into a new relationship and is very open about it, and I’ve focused only on that for SO long; which hasn’t gotten me anywhere.
I was led to this site, which I believe was by God Himself, and the more I seek His will, the more is revealed to me. There can be joy in persevering and there can be gladness in waiting. And patience isn’t some lofty goal that I won’t ever be strong enough to have. And I know that God will give me everything I need to persevere during this time since what I am standing for is blessed by the Lord Himself. I am starting to have so many more moments of peace, which doesn’t make sense; but I guess it’s not supposed to. And God is showing me things that He now knows I am ready to receive and be receptive to.
I used to look to people to confirm what I was feeling, to comfort me, and give me hope. Now, more and more, I look to God first. His Word will ALWAYS give me the answers I am looking for, and
I WILL see the restoration of my marriage. That is all I need to know, so I don’t have to worry. In the meantime, I will see the restoration of my relationship with my first love, Jesus Christ.