The man who forsakes the covenant of his God and the wife of his youth has set himself in a dreadful place, for sin in one who has known the mercy of God is peculiarly sinful. It is no trifle to despise vows made before the Lord, to abandon the responsibilities of husband, father, and spiritual leader. This is not merely a wound against a family; it is an offense against the God who says, “Although I was a Husband unto them, they broke My covenant.” Let that man consider the weight of his unwise counsel, for it has led him to make an idol of his own will, his own pleasure, his own rebellion. We may make a god of anything, and how quick we are to do it! If he fears not God nor regards Him, then the God of his fathers is no longer his God in the intimacy of covenant relationship, He becomes another man’s God, and a terror to the disobedient.
Yet for you who remain, abandoned and weeping, there is a Husband who never thinks of divorce. It is written that He hates putting away, and He has bound Himself to His people with bonds that no unfaithfulness of ours can utterly dissolve. The covenant of grace is not founded on the merit of the one who fails, but on the God who conveys Himself to you and becomes yours. Your earthly husband may have broken his column of resolve, preferring the vain merriments of a rebellious heart to the eternal splendours of faithfulness, but the Lord remains your Maker, your Husband, the God of the whole earth. Let your supreme aim now be not the restoration of what is lost by human effort, but to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Set God first in your love and in all your actions, and He will prove Himself a Father to the fatherless and a Defender of the widow.
Do not let a slavish fear of God creep in, as if this affliction were a token of His wrath against you. The fear that causes you to tremble at His holiness is right and good, it keeps the heart tender, but the dread that would drive you from Him is a poison. How wonderful that the holy Child Jesus, God incarnate, has taken all fear away for those who trust in Him! You are no longer to cower before a Judge but to lean upon the bosom of Him who receives prodigals with kisses of love. Yes, even now, let Him kiss you with the kisses of His mouth; this is something private, ravishing, and sweet. Pour out your complaint before Him. The bones of your peace have been broken, but the bones which God breaks shall yet praise Him, and every fracture will one day become a mouth with which to bless His name.
For that man, pray as one who knows that the cure of a mass of broken bones, a soul shattered by sin, must be a miracle of the Great Surgeon. Pray that the Lord will afflict him, not in vengeance, but in mercy, that he may be brought low like Manasseh. When he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly. Are you fighting against the Lord God of your father? May the Lord in mercy stop that guilty hand lest the curse of Absalom come upon him! Turn not aside from your father’s God! If he is altogether becoming worldly, covetous, and fond of levity while at ease, there is grave cause to suspect his adoption, for whom the Lord loves He chastens. Pray that he will not find the way of transgressors easy, but that God will bar his path with thorns until he cries out in true repentance.
There is travail required before the birth of restoration, travail in prayer with God. Cry to Him in secret, in the family, and in all your assemblies, that He would save this man from the ignorance of his own self-righteousness and bring him to the righteousness of Christ. He is an empty vessel that God means to fill, a broken heart that God is making new, but he must first know how complete any righteousness must be before God can accept it. Meanwhile, you take hold of the blood of the covenant. By nature you may feel like a prisoner in a pit wherein is no water, but by grace you are in covenant relationship to God. The everlasting covenant is the great foundation of everything for the saints. He says, “I am Jehovah their God,” and He will be your God in the darkness as surely as in the light.
Look through the telescope of faith often. See the end of the Lord, who is very pitiful and of tender mercy. He not only surrounds His own with tokens of love, but He says, “They shall be My people, and I will be their God.” That promise is for you and for your children after you, who fear Him. Rest in the God of salvation, to whom belong the issues from death, the death of a marriage, the death of a hope, the death of a reputation. He will bring you again to Jerusalem, to a place of peace and praise, as He did Manasseh. The prodigal may yet return, but even if he tarries, your Husband who is in heaven remains faithful. He has been a Husband unto you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. In wonder lost, with trembling joy, take the pardon of your God for any sin you have owned, and lean hard upon Him who is a pardoning God like no other, who has grace so rich and free.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. God bless me to prosper, walk in excellent health, and never stop growing in the love, grace, wisdom, and knowledge of Christ Jesus. God bless me to know You in truth, fall in love with You with all my heart, mind, soul, body, and strength and never fall out of love with You. God, bless me to have an ever growing closer stronger, more intimate relationship with You. Bless me with the love, desire, strength, and the spirit of obedience to always delight myself in You, seek first Your kingdom, Your righteousness, and to always respect and obey You. Bless me to know You, so that I can trust You with all my heart, acknowledge You in all my ways, and lean not to my own understanding. Bless me with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in all You have called me to do. 
be-an-encourager.blogspot.com
