HOW MUCH DO
YOU TRUST GOD?
“O Sovereign LORD, you are God! Your words are trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant. Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, O Sovereign LORD, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever.†2 Samuel 7:28-29
Last Tuesday morning my wife and I were doing devotions together, a blessing in itself. Charlyne wanted to read a verse in another translation so she picked up my burgundy Bible, sat back down and started turning to a specific verse.
I do not think I really heard the verse Charlyne was reading. Observing that particular Bible opened and lying in my wife’s lap, I had an overwhelming thought; twenty something years ago I never would have envisioned Charlyne ever touching my Bible again, much less having her reading it to me.
When I moved out of our home prior to the divorce, that Bible is the one I took with me. Sadly, for over two years it was only window dressing to me. Most Sundays I could be found in church carrying that Bible. It went right along with the wing-tipped shoes and the dark suits in impressing women other than my wife. In fact, I wore out the Bible’s cover, not by use, but by its being carried in and out of church as well as to some places where neither that Bible nor I should have been.
We had that Bible recovered a few years ago, and every page inside was carefully retained by the bindery in the restored Bible. Today it still has page after page of notes I took during sermons with women other than Charlyne sitting beside me. After all, taking notes went right along with the impression I was attempting to create, but inside I was as hollow as could be. Some of the notes are so pointed, clearly telling me to go home, that now I read them and wonder how I could have been so dense.
Frequently we hear from people who are praying for their marriage and whose prodigal spouse has started attending church with the other person. Most express, in one way or another, "My spouse could not attend with me but now they have the nerve to attend with someone else. How could they?"
If your prodigal is attending church, regardless of the reason, you should be thanking God. It is never a bad thing for a person to be hearing the Word of God proclaimed in their presence, regardless of what motivated them to attend church. If your prodigal is living in sin, you should especially be thanking God that He has the one you love in church, regardless of what prompted them to attend, not who is sitting next to them. Our Lord God is right there with that odd couple.
There are incidents in the Steinkamp story that have never been told, out of respect for the other people involved. I do feel led to share that many a Sunday afternoon after coming back from church the other woman and I had serious discussions about something from the sermon dealing with adultery. I never would have admitted it then, but both of us were under Holy Spirit conviction.
I need to ask you a very serious question; How much do you trust God? Please ponder it and not just give the standard answer about how trusting you are.
Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Psalm 40:4-5
On the day you were saved you trusted God. On the day when you took a stand for marriage restoration you trusted God. Are you still trusting God that much today?
When God sent your prodigal spouse to church with another did He not know what He was doing? Did God slip up when He allowed your mate’s non-covenant marriage to that other person to proceed, despite your prayers? When that other person became pregnant by your spouse, God’s Word tells us He was right there.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:13-14
There have been many incidents in our own family when we have wanted to question what God was doing. Where was God when our grandson was stillborn? What about the times in our family when we prayed for healing and it has not come? Where was God when five male family members were out of work because of a business failure? (If you feel that families in ministry have it made, you are headed the wrong direction. Serving the Lord full time is like waving a red flag at a bull. Satan will pull out all the stops to bring down people in ministry.)
I pray that you can join Charlyne and me in realizing that God is right there with each of His children, regardless of what they are passing through.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah. Psalm 46:1-3
Someone might be saying, "I would never have let that Bible back into our home because I know where it had been and I know who read from it with my spouse." It is not about who read from that Bible, nor is it about who sat in church with me. It is about what God tells us inside every Bible.
Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Proverbs 30:5
Before we remarried, Charlyne allowed Jesus to vaccinate her with the lifetime vaccines of forgiveness and trust. Regardless of what she might face on this day, the matters of her trusting God and forgiving me are settled. My burgundy Bible is no longer a symbol of a hurting time for her, nor of a sinful time for me. For many years that sacred book has been a symbol to each of us of what God can do in the midst of that hurt and sin.
Regardless of what news about your prodigal spouse you might hear today, or even if this season of no contact continues, rejoice and thank God that He is at work on the other side of the mountain. My prodigal Bible tells me so.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
Because He lives,
Bob Steinkamp
Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.
YOU TRUST GOD?
“O Sovereign LORD, you are God! Your words are trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant. Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, O Sovereign LORD, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever.†2 Samuel 7:28-29
Last Tuesday morning my wife and I were doing devotions together, a blessing in itself. Charlyne wanted to read a verse in another translation so she picked up my burgundy Bible, sat back down and started turning to a specific verse.
I do not think I really heard the verse Charlyne was reading. Observing that particular Bible opened and lying in my wife’s lap, I had an overwhelming thought; twenty something years ago I never would have envisioned Charlyne ever touching my Bible again, much less having her reading it to me.
When I moved out of our home prior to the divorce, that Bible is the one I took with me. Sadly, for over two years it was only window dressing to me. Most Sundays I could be found in church carrying that Bible. It went right along with the wing-tipped shoes and the dark suits in impressing women other than my wife. In fact, I wore out the Bible’s cover, not by use, but by its being carried in and out of church as well as to some places where neither that Bible nor I should have been.
We had that Bible recovered a few years ago, and every page inside was carefully retained by the bindery in the restored Bible. Today it still has page after page of notes I took during sermons with women other than Charlyne sitting beside me. After all, taking notes went right along with the impression I was attempting to create, but inside I was as hollow as could be. Some of the notes are so pointed, clearly telling me to go home, that now I read them and wonder how I could have been so dense.
Frequently we hear from people who are praying for their marriage and whose prodigal spouse has started attending church with the other person. Most express, in one way or another, "My spouse could not attend with me but now they have the nerve to attend with someone else. How could they?"
If your prodigal is attending church, regardless of the reason, you should be thanking God. It is never a bad thing for a person to be hearing the Word of God proclaimed in their presence, regardless of what motivated them to attend church. If your prodigal is living in sin, you should especially be thanking God that He has the one you love in church, regardless of what prompted them to attend, not who is sitting next to them. Our Lord God is right there with that odd couple.
There are incidents in the Steinkamp story that have never been told, out of respect for the other people involved. I do feel led to share that many a Sunday afternoon after coming back from church the other woman and I had serious discussions about something from the sermon dealing with adultery. I never would have admitted it then, but both of us were under Holy Spirit conviction.
I need to ask you a very serious question; How much do you trust God? Please ponder it and not just give the standard answer about how trusting you are.
Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Psalm 40:4-5
On the day you were saved you trusted God. On the day when you took a stand for marriage restoration you trusted God. Are you still trusting God that much today?
When God sent your prodigal spouse to church with another did He not know what He was doing? Did God slip up when He allowed your mate’s non-covenant marriage to that other person to proceed, despite your prayers? When that other person became pregnant by your spouse, God’s Word tells us He was right there.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:13-14
There have been many incidents in our own family when we have wanted to question what God was doing. Where was God when our grandson was stillborn? What about the times in our family when we prayed for healing and it has not come? Where was God when five male family members were out of work because of a business failure? (If you feel that families in ministry have it made, you are headed the wrong direction. Serving the Lord full time is like waving a red flag at a bull. Satan will pull out all the stops to bring down people in ministry.)
I pray that you can join Charlyne and me in realizing that God is right there with each of His children, regardless of what they are passing through.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah. Psalm 46:1-3
Someone might be saying, "I would never have let that Bible back into our home because I know where it had been and I know who read from it with my spouse." It is not about who read from that Bible, nor is it about who sat in church with me. It is about what God tells us inside every Bible.
Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Proverbs 30:5
Before we remarried, Charlyne allowed Jesus to vaccinate her with the lifetime vaccines of forgiveness and trust. Regardless of what she might face on this day, the matters of her trusting God and forgiving me are settled. My burgundy Bible is no longer a symbol of a hurting time for her, nor of a sinful time for me. For many years that sacred book has been a symbol to each of us of what God can do in the midst of that hurt and sin.
Regardless of what news about your prodigal spouse you might hear today, or even if this season of no contact continues, rejoice and thank God that He is at work on the other side of the mountain. My prodigal Bible tells me so.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
Because He lives,
Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.
