A Marriage Engulfed in Flames...Cling to your Faith in the Fire
Have you ever felt like everything around you is burning to the ground….No matter what and where it all seems to be going up in flames. Your relationship with your spouse, your children, your finances, your career, your health, literally everything you can possibly think of seems to be on fire and not in a good way. When everything around you is turning to ashes what do you do? Isaiah 61:3 tells us that the Lord will give us beaty for ashes. If your world seems to be engulfed find peace in knowing we serve a God who can turn our ashes into something beautiful.
A few years ago our marriage had been turned to ashes. It had already burned to the ground in every avenue of what the foundation of a relationship is built on. That season of fire and torment while it burned so much of our marriage and relationship God was still present in the flames even when it looked like everything was dead. In the book of Daniel Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace by king Nebuchadnezzar and he had ordered the furnace to be heated up seven times hotter than it normally was heated to ensure that they would die for refusing to bow to his idols. The flames were so hot that it killed the guards that threw them into the furnace. But because of their faith in God none of them were even slightly burned and the King saw that there were four men walking around in the fire unharmed and that the fourth appeared like the son of God. Their faith didn’t prevent the fire from being built, it didn’t remove them from being bound and thrown into the fire, and it didn’t prevent things around them from being burned. Their faith kept the flames from killing them. If the flames of this life are burning all around your marriage what is your faith in? The flames wont last forever. If you keep your faith in our savior and truly trust in his will for your marriage then what he has in store for you when the flames die off is greater than anything you can imagine. Tasha wrote an earlier blog post and spoke on the life that comes after the flames. The ONLY source of life in and after marriage fires is our savior. He can truly turn ashes into beauty but without faith and trusting in Him there is no hope. Your faith in Him and His will for your marriage is going to determine if there is life after the flames.
Church and religion often speaks on “faith” but the word faith holds zero power to change anything in your life and in your marriage. You cant simply tell someone “I’ve got faith that our marriage will survive.” Ive got faith that my spouse is going to change. Faith is empty. We love to parade the word around like a cliché and even buy the pretty wall decorations from hobby lobby for half off that often read “Faith hope love”. But there is no power in faith hope and love. It’s the object of what our faith is IN that holds the power to put the earth into orbit and speak life into existence. Don’t fall victim to the societal belief that the word faith has power of some sort in it. Jesus knew and even spoke about being put to death and that He would raise from the grave on the third day. It was His FAITH IN HIS FATHER that He KNEW on the third day he would raise from death back to life again. He never once doubted that God the Father might not be able to bring Him back to life. It is your faith in your savior that can save your marriage from the flames and make beauty out of the ashes. You may think “how could God ever bring good out of our marriage?” That is not having faith that our creator is greater than ANY of your situations or circumstances. Believe and know that God can raise your marriage up from the dead and speak life into it again. God absolutely can bring life back into your marriage and lead it to a place you and your spouse have never been. But extinguishing the flames and bringing life back again begins with you having faith that our savior and creator can all things. What is your faith grounded and rooted in? If God can do it for our marriage then He certainly can do it in your marriage. Faith in Him is the beginning that changes your ending.