Life Study

The Power of a Praying Wife/Husband

For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

Pg. 213 our final chapter, in the book by Stormie Omartian, The Power of a Praying Husband. I have thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. Short review of the book coming later.

I’ve been looking at 4 different books for the next study. Not 100% sure but think I have decided to go through the book by Gary Smalley – Making Love Last Forever. A couple of concepts really jumped out and grabbed my attention, especially this one: “The first step toward achieving the deep satisfaction of a lifelong love with your spouse is learning to love life itself — every part of it, good and bad, harsh and rewarding.” (Gary Smalley) I realize this is a difficult statement and that is why I am intrigued by what he is going to say. He is suggesting the way to help a marriage is to appreciate your every day existence and I believe he is going to suggest ways as to how we do this.

Stormie talks about investing in the future. She uses the example of watching the stock market but never investing, just watching. You will never make any money with that method no matter how much you watch.

“The same is true for our future. When we invest wisely, we see greater dividends. However unlike the stock market, when we don’t invest anything, we can still lose. And those losses can be devastating.” (Stormie)

“The most profitable way to invest in the future is to pray”. (Stormie)

At one point, it sounds like she dealt with anxiety about her future on a regular basis. One particular time when she was troubled, Pastor Jack Hayford made a profound statement to her…

“Don’t let where you are become a prophecy of where you’re going to stay.” (Jack Hayford)

In other words, don’t worry about the future, concentrate on doing the right thing. God is in charge and in control of the future. But our decisions made (out of the realm of His guidelines) can alter the course. So stay the course. Focus on His plans and His ways. An easy way to think about that is an example of constructing a home or some other kind of building such as an office, restaurant or manufacturing plant.

Not to suggest it will be easy, but there is a right way to proceed. The project manager or general contractor is going to focus on quality, time, cost, organization, and the plans for the building. God has a plan also. Its our job to follow it the best we can. The interesting thing about a building project is the actual construction is imperfect or never turns out exactly as was anticipated. Because there were things that came up during the project which may have slightly changed the original plan. Or imperfect humans didn’t follow the plan to perfection. It could have been a slight modification or it may have been a significant rework. But the building is still the building if the contractor continues to focus on the plan no matter how many problems may arise. It still functions exactly as intended. The plan was followed enough to provide a functional building.

There are three parties that make this project happen an owner, architect and builder. Guess which role we have? You are correct we are the builder, the hands and the feet. Our objective is to know the plan, work the plan and when (not if) things don’t go right get back on the plan.

Do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands; for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.  Proverbs 3:1-3

This is unrelated to anything we are studying, but I deemed this letter (I came across) by Darrel Scott to be noteworthy.

“On Thursday, May 27, 1999, Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, was invited to address the House Judiciary Committee’s sub-committee. What he said to our national leaders during this special session of Congress was painfully truthful. They were not prepared for what he was to say, nor was it received well. It needs to be heard by every parent, every teacher, every politician, every sociologist, every psychologist, and every so-called expert! These courageous words spoken by Darrell Scott are powerful, penetrating, and deeply personal. There is no doubt that God sent this man as a voice crying in the wilderness.”

The following is a portion of the transcript:

“Since the dawn of creation there has been both good & evil in the hearts of men and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher, and the other eleven children who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers.”

Read the rest of this entry »

…Oh, there have been revolutions before and since ours. But those revolutions simply exchanged one set of rules for another. Ours was a revolution that changed the very concept of government.

Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people.

We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should.

Happy Fourth of July. (Ronald Reagan) President of the United States

It’s here, our 232nd birthday and I don’t feel a day over 230. And here are those famous words:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

We cannot stop the fight to continue our freedom for us as well as our children. As the saying goes, freedom is never more than one generation away from destruction.

Patience is one of those virtues we have in abundant supply until we need it. But it is a very difficult virtue to develop. The Bible says there is only one way to achieve it. Tribulation works patience (see Romans 5:3-5). (Dr. Dobbins)….

The article continues to explain the following points:

Tribulation

Patience

Experience

Hope

A Heart Full of the Love of God

click on the link for the rest of the article

WHERE IS PATIENCE WHEN YOU NEED IT

God will strengthen you with His own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient. Colossians 1:11

Boundaries are to help us define our identity and to provide us with security. When you allow your life to get out of bounds you feel insecure. (By Dr. Richard D. Dobins)

I could not agree more with Dr. Dobins statement above. Stepping out of God-given boundaries is a free pass to an unsound mind. It opens your emotions up to unbalanced thinking. Its like a school cross-walk on a busy street with no crossing guard.

At my place of work, I recall speaking with a potential “installer” for our equipment. He was in his first week of employment and on a 60 day trial period. He had plenty of experience and seemed self-confident enough to lead a project for our customers. Until I spent time with him during lunch and dinner. Inevitably he would begin to discuss his old employers and became indignant about each experience he had over a 40 year period, including his 2 years in the service. Every story, ended with resentfulness on his part. Basically, he had taken down the anger barrier in his life and had no intentions of controlling it. It became part of his personality. So my obvious apprehension was the likely possibility of his communicating this to a customer. He had not demonstrated any ability to forget or at least control his feelings about all of those who had been in authority over him. All of us, most likely could recall some bad experience where we were mishandled or treated unfairly. But common sense boundaries help us to know how and when to deal with those feelings. This potential employee had taken the walls down in this area of his life.

Never plow with an ox and a donkey harnessed together. Deuteronomy 22:10

A husband who brings home anger (or any emotion which has crossed God-given boundaries) everyday to a wife who attempts to follow biblical boundaries is like plowing with an ox and a donkey together.

Take a look at the meaning of the word “together” in this verse, it depicts a unit:
yachad (yakh’-ad)
a unit, i.e. (adverb) unitedly — alike, at all (once), both, likewise, only, (al-)together, withal.

A husbands unrestrained emotions will directly effect his spouse.

AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. Mark 10:8

To summarize, you cannot live an undisciplined life crossing necessary boundaries without effecting your partner.