FOM Notes

Let’s Pray About It

Part 5 of 6 in the series “Getting Out Of The Doghouse”

May 17, 2009                    Pastor Scott Oldenburgh

 

POPPING THE REAL MARRIAGE QUESTION

 

Is God (central) in our marriage?

 

FOUR ELEMENTS OF A SPIRITUALLY DYNAMIC MARRIAGE

 

ä  (Spiritual) growth

 

If two people are in an active and growing relationship with God, the two people will be growing (towards) one another, not (further) away

 

 

“ . . and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?  So they are no longer two, but one.  Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

Matthew 19:5-6

 

“ . . . if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

2 Chronicles 7:14

 

ä  Active (prayer) life

 

A couple that commits to pray (for) one another and (with) one another has more opportunity to see things from God’s perspective

 

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

James 5:16

 

“What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?”

Deuteronomy 4:7

 

ä  Obedient (lifestyle)

 

Love is a (verb).  If you don’t feel like loving someone, commit to loving (actions).  Action should lead (feelings), not feelings leading action.

 

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.”

James 1:22

 

“This is how we know what love is:  Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers . . . Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

I John 3:16,18

 

ä  Celebrate (God) together

 

When a couple celebrates God together, they remember that God is telling (His) story through (their) story

 

“But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

Luke 15:32