A Marriage Miracle – MM #130

Are you praying for a marriage miracle today? Are you losing hope that God truly does resurrect marriages from the ruins? Please hang on; looking to God for hope and help is not fruitless. After all:

“Who better to resurrect an ash heap of a marriage than the creator of marriage Himself?” (Marla Kloenckner)

Need a Marriage Miracle?

Is your marriage troubled? Do you know others in that situation? If so, we hope you’ll find the following to be inspiring.

Jim Cymbala (pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York City) spoke on a (January 7, 2004) radio broadcast on Focus on the Family about the power of prayer. He told how it has changed his life. The following are a few things he shared on the subject of marriage:

• “There have been more books written about marriages than in all the preceding 2000 years of church history. More books in the last 40 years have been written on marriage. And yet go to any pastor in America; ask him if there aren’t more problems in marriages today than ever before. We’ve got all the ‘how-to’s’ but what we’re missing is the praise of God. Those that pray together stay together.

“Even so, there will be difficult moments. I’m not being overly simplistic about this. But God says, ‘Call upon Me and I will answer you. I will show you great and marvelous things‘ —just give Me a chance!

The Need for God’s Power

• “The problems we’re experiencing in married life isn’t because we’re lacking knowledge or the ‘how-to’s.’ All of that has its place. But brother and sister, when the rubber meets the road what we need is the power of God. The Bible says, ‘And therefore, let us come boldly to the throne of God so that we might receive grace and mercy in our time of need.‘

• “The God over my life and possibly yours writes, ‘You have not because you ask not.‘ In other words God has this table set for us. And He sees you and your spouse and He knows exactly what you need. He has the table spread with every type of wisdom, grace, and strength you could ever possibly need. But He says the only way you can get it is to pull up to the table. You are to ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good‘ —and pulling up to the table is called PRAYER.

“In other words God doesn’t tell us ‘pray because I want my people to pray’—He says, ‘pray because I have all kinds of things for you’ and ‘when you ask you shall receive.‘

The Grace and Power of God

• “And the hard cases that some of you are facing —know that the ultimate answer isn’t going to come from going to another seminar. Seminars have their limits. What they are is an arrow that points you to the throne of grace. But when you get there —WATCH OUT! —because God ‘can do exceedingly beyond what we ask or think.‘

“I’m not being simplistic. But we have too many technicians invading the church that are into ‘methodology.’ The answer is not in methodology, the answer is in the power of the Holy Spirit. The answer is in the grace of God.”

Please note:

Methodology is a TOOL. It’s something that helps you as you work WITH the power of God —because of the power of God —in the strength and wisdom that God can give you through His Holy Spirit. It is not a substitute, or something that has much power without the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

We can personally testify that without plugging into the power of God through prayer, our own marriage would be a divorce disaster. Pulling up to the table called PRAYER has been the wisest move we’ve made to save and strengthen our marriage. God is in the miracle-working business. We’ve experienced that personally and have seen it lived out in the lives of countless others.

We’d also like to share additional thoughts on this subject written by Ron Hutchcraft. It comes from his book, Start Your Trip with a Full Tank …and Other Spiritual Jump Starts (a Baker book which is no longer being published). In it he talked about a marriage miracle that Christ performed at a wedding in Cana (see John 2:1-11). He wrote:

A Marriage Miracle

“Take notice of where Jesus did His first miracle—at a wedding. We saw our own personal miracle at our wedding, and we’ve seen a lot since. Maybe your marriage could use a miracle right now.

“That day in Cana, there was a change that no man or woman could make. Nobody can change water into wine, but Jesus did. Maybe right now, some change is urgently needed in your home. Have you been to your knees together yet?

“Have you poured out your mess, your pain, and your dark feelings to the Lord —crying out together for Jesus’ healing in your marriage? The less you feel like doing it, the more you need to. And if your partner absolutely will not, don’t let that stop you. This passage says Jesus had been INVITED to this wedding, to this marriage. Why don’t you invite Him into your marriage?

Don’t Quit

“Close the door to quitting. Ask God to show you the hope factors that you can build on. You’ve looked at the hopeless factors long enough. Can you pray this? ‘Lord, we can’t make it work, and I don’t know how You would, but we beg You to do what we can’t do in this marriage.’

“2,000 years ago, in the midst of a marriage, Jesus met an impossible need with His supernatural intervention. Today, the scene is set again with you and the one you’ve promised your life to.”

Hope Factors

Did you see that term… hope factors, in what Ron wrote? God specializes in giving hope. And above all, He cares for you. Your marriage miracle may or may not come in the way you hope and pray it will. But don’t lose hope. God still does perform miracles. Pray, hope, and look to God to bring a miracle into your life. Just don’t box Him in. Look for a series of small miracles, as well as big ones. And don’t put it into your time frame, but give God the elbow room He needs for whatever amount of time He needs to do what He deems important to do.

Here are some additional points to consider on this issue:

Break it Down

• “If you’re in a difficult season in your marriage and you start to think, ‘How can I take another 10 or 20 or, God forbid, 30 years of this?’ You’re headed for trouble. You’re asking God to give you the grace for something that hasn’t happened. Instead, break it down to a single unit —a single day: ‘Just focus on this: Can I love my husband [or wife] for this day?’ Don’t think about 10 years down the road, or even 10 months! Can you love your spouse for this one day?

“Some friends who knew I was running the Seattle Marathon asked me, ‘How did you do that for 26 miles?’ My answer? ‘One mile at a time.’ How do you stay married for 26 years? One day at a time. Break it down. Focus on the here and now. Put the future in God’s hands. Some miles will seem easy, and some will feel hard, but you need to focus only on the ones you’re currently running. Let the others remain in His care. Can you love your spouse for this one day?” (Gary Thomas, Devotions for a Sacred Marriage)

Additionally, realize:

• “Nobody is advocating that men and women stay in a physically abusive marriage, or in a marriage unhinged by constant infidelity. But ‘most people who get divorced,’ as James Wilson (social scientist) said, ‘aren’t trying to escape such dire situations.’

“…Couples divorce at lower thresholds of unhappiness now than in the past, researcher have found. In a study conducted over many years, it was found that nearly three-fifths of married men and women who said in the 1980’s that they were unhappy said 10 years later that they were ‘very happy’ or ‘quite happy.’…We’re losing many marriages that could be saved.” (Andrew Hermann)

Again, don’t box God in by putting your time frame and your parameters onto the miracle you are trusting Him for. In the meantime, I encourage you to read and watch as many of the following video testimonies as you can. It may help to build your faith to believe God for the miracle you are looking for:

• SAVE MY MARRIAGE TESTIMONIES

Put Your Hope In God

You may find it difficult to put your hope into a situation that looks hopeless. But you can put your hope into a God who is able to resurrect the dead? Don’t underestimate all that God can accomplish in your marriage and in your life with one heart fully yielded to Him.

Cindy and Steve Wright

Print Post