This is a guest post by Dr. Kim Kimberling. Dr. Kimberling consistently offers Prep For Marriage Online LifeGroup and is a champion for healthy and biblical marriages. Be sure to check out all the links and information about his ministry at the bottom of this post!!
Where is God in your marriage? Where do you want Him to be? Do you know where He wants to be? These are questions that I want you to ask yourself.
Maybe there was a time in your marriage that God was right where He wants to be and where you wanted Him to be – at the center. Maybe He has never had that place in your marriage. Maybe you have wanted Him in your marriage but have had no idea how to do that.
Look at Ecclesiastes 4:12, “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Now apply that to the marriage relationship. Three cords – the husband, the wife, and God. Wow! Can you even imagine the power in that. It means you do not have to figure all this marriage stuff out on your own. It means that you are bound together in your marriage with the Creator of the Universe. There is enough power to overcome all obstacles, to love unconditionally, and to have a marriage that you cherish.
Think of a lamp in your living room. You set it near an electric plug. Behind that plug is all the power of the electric company but if you never put the plug in the socket, the lamp remains dark and so does the living room. It cannot produce light on it’s own. One day you stood at an altar and made a marriage covenant with God. You had hopes and dreams for your marriage. You knew this marriage would be something special. You would not falter as so many do, but did you ever plug in? Did you ever say God this is your deal and we are here to follow you. God, Your plan, is better that anything we could ever concoct on our own. God, we are in with you 100%. God has been there waiting for you the whole time. Just like the electric company, He has been waiting for you to plug in and let Him ignite your marriage.
Are you ready to plug in? Start with prayer. I have never seen anything like the power of prayer in a marriage. Pray each day for your spouse and pray each day for your marriage. Pray the God will make your marriage into something extraordinary. Pray that He will deepen your love for each other and for Him. Tell Him that you are completely sold out to Him come “heck or high water” (sorry, church blog!).
What! You have never prayed together? Guess what? Neither have 95% of Christian couples and that includes pastors and their wives. You are bucking the trend and it will pay off big time. Here are some steps to guide you:
First, and probably most important, stay at the comfort level of the one who is least comfortable. We began praying silently together. I could do that. I could not do praying out loud together. Next, agree on what you are both praying for and pray every day.Set aside a time each day for prayer. If you don’t it is easy to miss a few days. It does not need to be a big block of time. A few minutes focused together with God on your marriage is plenty to begin with. As you get more comfortable, you can pray out loud together but let that evolve naturally. As you see God work in your marriage, you will be drawn to go to Him more often. He would love to be involved in every aspect of your life together. We pray when there is a problem. We pray when we are trying to make a decision. We used to pray for wisdom with our children when they were still at home. In other words, begin to make the cord of three strands a marriage lifestyle.
Finally, post here what God is doing in your marriage. This will honor Him and will encourage others. My prayer for LifeChurch.tv is to have a zero divorce rate. God can do that, you know!
Visit our web site www.acordofthreestrands.com. We have great marriage resources. We have a weekly “Marriage Moment” video. We have daily “Marriage Booster’s.” You can follow all this on Facebook and Twitter as well as my blog. It is simple. Just click on the links. For now, PRAY!
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
yum.
What a great post Dr. Kim! Thank you for the challenge. I would love to see marriages all over the world through Church Online be truly plugged into the source. I know that distractions can easily push away from the simple but powerful things that create a healthy marriage. I pray that action comes from this post in my life and in those who read it.
Hi Brandon,
Thank you for sharing this with us. After almost 21 years of marriage, my wife and I NEED alot of prayer. This is something we can do together! I will let the Holy Spirit work thru us as we begin to pray together.
-Jerry
Thanks for sharing.. I've been married 3 times, the first two not allowing Christ to be the center, the 3rd time, we've made God the center of our lives. We've learned that through Christ, our marriage is complete, a covenant with God and each other for a lifetime. Yet we still have to follow His directions: Eph 5:21-30. I can truly say that as a result, we pray together, live together, love together as Christ had planned. A deeper, truer, and more meaningful life for all of us! We've made it through more trials and tribulationis than I ever would have dreamed and He gets us through the good and bad simply because we lift our marriage up to Him through prayer and our living. It WORKS!!
Wow! I love this post! I also love the stat that Dr. Kim brought up in his video with Brandon and Christi Donaldson -that the statistics for divorce rate in couples that pray together is like 1 in 1000! That is huge! Thank you Dr Kim and Life Church for bringing up these things! The foundation of our country and the foundation for healthy childeren rests in marriage. We need great ones!
I have been attending LC @ the SOC campus for alomst 3 years and this is the first time I really looked at church online. The message from Craig was right on to the point that we have to go into ALL the world(even the world wide web)to reach the lost. Ya God and Ya LifeChurch.tv for being obedient to what God is calling this part of the body of Christ forward.
Ana and I have just begun a couple’s devotional Bible that we daily read, discuss, and pray over. It has been a great way for us to start praying together. We were fortunate to meet with Brandon this summer and discuss some of these things in person, but we feel super blessed to be able to follow church online all the way over here in Dili. God is here with us, and we are working on that “cord of three strands” everyday. Praise God and thank you lifechurch.tv.