A Divorce That Works

We now live in a country where 60% of CHRISTIAN MARRIAGES end in divorce.  Wow!  I wouldn't have ever thought that Christian Marriages would be so unprepared to handle the pressures of daily living.  But, there it is D I V O R C E.  That old country song really stings in my ears now more than ever.  The very fabric of our faith is unraveling before our eyes and there seems to be very little or no attempt by the modern day church to meet this problem head on. Divorce -  a legal decree dissolving a marriage • a separation between things that were or ought to be connected.  No matter how you spell it out, it still spells failure. Failure to follow through with your commitment.  Failure to draw closer to each other now that you are one flesh. Genesis 2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.  Failure to pursue God together as a unified force in your world and family.  Failure to forgive and work things out one problem at a time.  Failure to develop your hearts together. FAILURE!!!

It's time to wake up and see where the problem lies.  In our hearts.  For those who know Christ, the bond we have with our heavenly Father is to be so strong that it makes it very difficult when you are not married to another believer. 2 Cor. 6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?  You see, when we accept Christ and give Him our life He takes that step of faith and starts a process that begins with salvation and grows it into a very intimate relationship with our heavenly Father.  God changes in our lives from GOD, to Abba Father, or daddy.  That intimacy draws us closer to Him by giving us a desire to pursue Him with everything we are and that starts a very big change. (Oh no.  They didn't tell you that you would have an immediate change when you accepted Christ?) Our Bad!!!  REALLY.......Our bad.  Our spiritual gift of assumption kicked in and kept us from discipling you like we were supposed to.  Why did that happen?  Probably because no one made a concentrated effort to disciple us.  Makes sense doesn't it?  What's good for the goose is good for.....You know the rest.  So the legacy that should be passed down to all believers is not a legacy at all, but a weak expression of what we experience in Christ.  The end result is a very watered down faith without much power and even though the Holy Spirit is supposed to be controlling each of us, He is shut out because we don't even know He's there.  Wow!  Things look tough don't they?  Not so fast my friend.  God is still alive.  He still changes lives.  His Holy Spirit is in those who know Christ and ready to respond.  When can all this power and direction begin?  NOW!  Yes, I said NOW!  Here's what needs to happen. The only Divorce that needs to take place in your life is the divorce with your past life.  2 Co. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!   When you accept Christ you will have a new perspective on life.  One that is no longer self centered, but Christ centered.  You put your wants and desires on the back burner and you let Him lead you through a new life according to His Will.  That process is real and does work, but it has to happen.  You must  totally get a divorce from who you were and be joined with God and be one in heart with Him.  The problem with a lot of baby Christians is they are not told the whole truth and they just do a trial separation with their past life and dabble in their Christian life and never really see the turning, or the change become complete.  That trial separation is just a trial and before long they are back to living nowhere lives.  The only problem is that whatever they try to do is always compromised and less than what it should be because their CORE is not pure and healthy.  I guess you could say that a person who has a little of Christ and a lot of the world is a spiritual bigamist. The only problem is you cannot be married to both.  You must divorce, not do a trial separation from your past self and totally give your life to Christ.  Anything less than that compromises what God will be able to do in your life.Oh yeah, the divorce problem among Christians.....By now you must surely see how putting another person in your life with your weak faith can only lead to problems down the road.  Usually that ring, that ceremony, that paper, that commitment becomes another in a long series of failures.  So the root to the problem is not necessarily a lack of good marriage training.  It is more likely a lack of discipleship for the person who accepted Christ.  Of course, marriage problems are just one of many problems for a person who has a weak, worldly based Christian faith.  Right now though, it is tearing apart lives right and left, not to mention how much it is weakening the effectiveness of the local church.If you are going through marital problems right now, I am willing to believe that a weak faith by one or both parties involved is at the root of your problems.  You will get no better life and marriage counseling than that given by The Wonderful Counselor, Jesus.  Start with a heart to heart with you and Him, and then have a heart to heart with the other part of your flesh, and I believe things will start looking up immediately.It's time to move out of the house with your past life and divorce it once and for all, and renew your original commitment to the Lord.  You will be pleasantly surprised how much it will change everything else in your life.  That's a divorce that works!!!

The Pilgrimage continues...

David Warren