My Devotional – Marital Happiness

When the rosy glow diminishes and reality sets in, what makes some marriages happy while others slide into misery? Luck? Good genes? Hanging tough? Hardly! Marital happiness that transcends changing circumstances is built on the qualities Jesus taught.

Let’s look at them:

1. Happy are humble. “Blesses (happy…) are the poor in spirit (the humble, who rate themselves insignificant). Pride that’s self-promoting and always demanding its rights brings misery, while humility, self denial and considering your mate’s needs brings happiness.

2. Happy are the meek: The gentle, patient and kind. Handling your spouse’s struggles with kindness, sensitivity and long-suffering is an expression of love that brings healing into the painful chapters of life and marriage.

3. Happy are the merciful. Sooner or later we’ll inflict injury on one another. Hurt, disappointment and anger will rise up, followed by a desire to make them pay. But just as revenge begets revenge, mercy begets mercy. Mercy isn’t “letting them get away with it.” Treating your spouse mercifully is reciprocal. I creates an atmosphere, where, when you fail, you :shall obtain mercy.” Mercy ends disputes when nothing else works!

4. Happy are the peacemakers. The need to be “right” and “win” only intensifies conflict. In marriage, when one “wins,” both lose! Giving up personal victory to be a peacemaker is ultimate victory. You’d be eternally lost if Jesus hadn’t willingly surrendered His rights for your wrongs. The ring is not the sole symbol of Christian marriage, but the cross superimposed on the ring. Christlike surrender of our uncrucified self promotes marital happiness!

My Devotional – Living Fearlessly

The words “fear not” keep showing up in the Bible all the way from Genesis to Revelation. Why is that? Because God understands that fear is not only our biggest enemy but our constant companion, and He wants to help us overcome it.

One author writes: Think of your comfort zone as a prison you live in – a largely self-created prison. It consists of a collection of cant’s, must’s, must-nots and other unfounded beliefs formed from all the negative thoughts and decisions you have accumulated and reinforced during your lifetime. Every fear is like a bar in that prison.

But the good news is, because fears are feelings, the faulty ones can be removed by faith in God, and you can become free from them. Does this mean you can live totally free from fear? No, writer Michael Ignatieff says: Living fearlessly is not the same thing as never being afraid. It’s good to be afraid occasionally. Fear is a great teacher. What’s not good is living in fear, allowing fear to dictate your choices, allowing fear to define who you are.

Living fearlessly means standing up to fear, taking its measure, refusing to let it shape and define your life. Living fearlessly means taking risks, taking gambles, not playing it safe. It means refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer when you are sure that the answer should have been ‘yes.’ It means refusing to settle for less than what is your due, what is yours by right, what is yours by the sweat of your labor and your effort.” And let’s add – what God has promised and planned for you.

My Devotional – Moving From Doubt to Faith

Why do we experience so much doubt?

1. Because doubt satisfies our need for self protection – We don’t like to be wrong., to get hurt, or to fail, so our subconscious reasoning says, “It’s easier not to trust, to lower my expectations so I won’t be disappointed.” But your are disappointed, aren’t you? Why? Because of your doubt.

2. Because doubting comes easy – We don’t wake up in the morning and say to ourselves, “Today I’m going to doubt God.” No, doubt comes moves into a vacuum, it takes over when we don’t do the right things. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Ro 10:17). If you don’t keep your mind filled with God’s word you’ll be constantly assailed by doubts.

3. Because doubters are easy to find – Sometimes the people around us dwell on all the obstacles and difficulties, opening the door to doubt. And once that stream starts flowing, you get carried along with it.

4. Because doubting is contagious – Doubt is easier to catch than the common cold, and its carriers are words. The Bible says, “You are trapped y your own words” (Pr 6:2 CEV). The words you speak, (and listen to) will either build you up or tear you down, increase your faith or decrease it. For example, “What will I do?” versus, “I see no way out” versus “It’s not too big for God.” Words are powerful things. They determine your outlook and approach to life. So in order to move from doubt to faith you must start eliminating UN-scriptural words from your life!

My Devotional

My Devotional – You Can Overcome Bitterness

A man who had been bitten by a rattlesnake was rushed to the hospital. When he asked the doctor, “Is it life-threatening?” the doctor said, “The bite isn’t, but the poison is.”

The “bites” you suffer at the hands of others are painful and upsetting, but they’re not lethal. What happens to you normally doesn’t destroy you, but what happens in you afterwards can. Like venom, bitterness first poisons your mind, then your relationships. It causes you to replay the hurt until it controls you, stealing the future God planned for you.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can overcome bitterness. God says, “Stop being bitter and angry and mad at others.” And what God commands, He will give you the grace to do.

When Peter asked Jesus, “Should I forgive my brother seven times?”

Jesus said, “no, you must forgive him seventy times seven” (See Mt 18:21-22). In other words, “Forgive, and keep on forgiving until it no longer bothers you.”

What causes bitterness? Anger that’s allowed to take residence in your thought-life. God’s purpose for anger is to motivate you to tap into His power for solving problems; otherwise they become permanent. Solving the problem resolves and relieves your anger. But anger can become long-term bitterness when you fixate on “who did it to me,” making you hostile, critical, blaming and punitive.

You say, “Can I really stop my anger?” Yes, with God’s help you can control your reactions and behaviors, and starve anger to death. “The fruit of the Spirit is…self-control” (Gal 5:22-23 NIV).