Marriages in Stress
Hello, Friends,
"I left my husband a few days ago. Now he is calling me, saying that things will be different and I should just come back," Lisa shared with a group of us. I pulled her aside and told her, “I will be praying for you both.” She gave me a big hug and said, “Oh thank you!” I gave her the book Desperate Marriages by Gary Chapman. She responded later, “I read it and it was very helpful. Thank you so much.” We have been keeping in touch from time to time ever since. They have two boys.
A friend said, “I have something to share with you from your good friends X and Y. Y has been involved sexually with another women. They, together with the church, are working on reconciliation, but it is a hard road. X and Y asked me to tell you so you could be praying for them.”
“I haven’t been attending church since the first of the year,” another brother told me. “J and I have been having serious problems relating. And it feels a contradiction to pretend everything is ok and to go to church together. I am still very committed in my faith in Jesus. I guess if I didn’t have that I probably would have divorced. Do pray for us.” They are both committed to reconciliation.
The above are from three of the more than seven couples who have crossed my path in the last year whose marriages are under extreme stress. I am feeling called to listen to and pray for these couples as part of my work.
Along with this, I was given the book Signs and Wonders: Why Pentecostalism is the Fastest Growing Faith by my friend Paul Alexander. The Lord has used it to convince me even more clearly that prayer can change everything from the lives of friends to whole nations for the good. The more people that are praying, the more power there is to change things.
And so, as an experiment, I ask you to pray something like: “God help all the stressed couples that have crossed Jim’s path.” And we will try to see if there are any significant changes.
I challenge you when people in stress come into your journey, to really try to listen and pray for them. Or, as I heard from a Quaker about learning to pray, which I find as good advise for relationships in general, “ Show up (just be available), tell the truth (as best you see), and listen.”
Hello, Friends,
"I left my husband a few days ago. Now he is calling me, saying that things will be different and I should just come back," Lisa shared with a group of us. I pulled her aside and told her, “I will be praying for you both.” She gave me a big hug and said, “Oh thank you!” I gave her the book Desperate Marriages by Gary Chapman. She responded later, “I read it and it was very helpful. Thank you so much.” We have been keeping in touch from time to time ever since. They have two boys.
A friend said, “I have something to share with you from your good friends X and Y. Y has been involved sexually with another women. They, together with the church, are working on reconciliation, but it is a hard road. X and Y asked me to tell you so you could be praying for them.”
“I haven’t been attending church since the first of the year,” another brother told me. “J and I have been having serious problems relating. And it feels a contradiction to pretend everything is ok and to go to church together. I am still very committed in my faith in Jesus. I guess if I didn’t have that I probably would have divorced. Do pray for us.” They are both committed to reconciliation.
The above are from three of the more than seven couples who have crossed my path in the last year whose marriages are under extreme stress. I am feeling called to listen to and pray for these couples as part of my work.
Along with this, I was given the book Signs and Wonders: Why Pentecostalism is the Fastest Growing Faith by my friend Paul Alexander. The Lord has used it to convince me even more clearly that prayer can change everything from the lives of friends to whole nations for the good. The more people that are praying, the more power there is to change things.
And so, as an experiment, I ask you to pray something like: “God help all the stressed couples that have crossed Jim’s path.” And we will try to see if there are any significant changes.
I challenge you when people in stress come into your journey, to really try to listen and pray for them. Or, as I heard from a Quaker about learning to pray, which I find as good advise for relationships in general, “ Show up (just be available), tell the truth (as best you see), and listen.”
On my recent trip here at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, this student told me she was considering changing her major to peacemaking after hearing my sharing.
Peace, Jim
--
Jim Fitz
773-856-3351
www.jimspeacemaking.org
"Let us not be disheartened, as though human realities made impossible the accomplishments of God's plans" -Oscar Romero
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