“The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
~~~Exodus 14:14 (ESV)~~~
“Yes, each of us who find ourselves in the midst of a family breakup, wonder what is next? Know this, that your Heavenly Father feels your pain. He knows your doubts. He knows what is going on in your spouse. Trust Him. He will never fail you. Just remember that His timing is different than yours. Don’t put any time restraints on your prayer requests. Our Heavenly Father is all powerful. Again I say, He understands your situation and that of your spouse. Only He, through the Holy Spirit, can change the heart and mind of your spouse. In like manner, during the time you and your spouse are apart (emotionally and physically), the Holy Spirit will work on your heart and mind doing a much needed tune-up.” Ben in Texas from Rejoice Marriage Ministries.
“The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest.”
Charlyne Steinkamp “Never forget that the Lord called you out of the enemy’s darkness and that your husband or wife has been taken captive by their ignorance or did not realize the severe consequences of dabbling in the sins of this world. Satan is just waiting for anyone – you, your spouse or teenager or young adult – to just look over the hedge of God’s protection to see if the grass is greener on the other side”.
“For the wages which sin pays is death, but the [bountiful] free gift of God is eternal life through (in union with) Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Charlyne Steinkamp “Women, do you respect your husband? Men are to love their wives as their own bodies . A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. Ephesians 5:31 When I started disrespecting Bob because of his actions, behaviors, and words, I allowed the enemy to come into our home and pour self-righteousness, bitterness, and anger into my heart”.
“Wives, be subject (be submissive and adapt yourselves) to your own husbands as [a service] to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the Head of the church, Himself the Savior of [His] body. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, That He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such things [that she might be holy and faultless]. Even so husbands should love their wives as [being in a sense] their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and carefully protects and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, Because we are members (parts) of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is very great, but I speak concerning [the relation of] Christ and the church. However, let each man of you [without exception] love his wife as [being in a sense] his very own self; and let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband [that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly].”
Bob Steinkamp of Rejoice Marriage Ministries “May I borrow from Charlyne’s style today and ask you a question? What do prodigals want? No, not why do prodigals leave home, because we all know that answer. Husbands and wives walk out on their mates and on their children because of an attack from the enemy. Drugs, sex, and alcohol are not “why” prodigals leave, but “how” they leave. You and I both know how temporal those pleasures can be, and so does every prodigal spouse. We make that discovery the hard way; by experience, often at the cost of family, career, health and happiness”.
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world”.
~~~1 Peter 5:8-9 (ESV)~~~
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”.
Dennis Wingfield “Satan is the Great Deceiver. He cannot create anything but can only twist that which God has created. Satan tries to convince us that God really does not love us, that He really does not care for us and that He really does not have our best interests at heart. Do not listen to these lies”.
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
~~~James 4:7 (KJV)~~~
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
~~~John 10:10 (KJV)~~~
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
Rejoice Marriage Ministries fellow stander, Kim from Nebraska “When Dad had left several months ago, Nate and his sisters were actually glad to see him go. There had been arguing and strife in the home for a long time and Nate thought that this separation was a good thing because then he didn’t have to listen to the raised voices all the time or see the tears in his mom’s eyes after a confrontation. And, for a while, it WAS a good thing because the arguing had stopped. What he didn’t know at the time was that it was quiet in his home now because the enemy had succeeded in stirring up enough strife to break up another family”.
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and have it in abundance.”
Charlyne Steinkamp “You are being attacked because you are walking with your Lord on the narrow road of righteousness”.
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
Lori Steinkamp “The Pastor went on to say, ‘A lot of people think that if you aren’t the best of the best, you can’t make a difference and I want to tell you that you are wrong. When I read God’s Word, I find that Jesus took twelve rag-tag men and changed the world.'”
“The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.”
~~~2 Corinthians 10:3-6 (MSG)~~~
“For although we live in the natural realm, we don’t wage a military campaign employing human weapons, using manipulation to achieve our aims. Instead, our spiritual weapons are energized with divine power to effectively dismantle the defenses behind which people hide. We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One. Since we are armed with such dynamic weaponry, we stand ready to punish any trace of rebellion, as soon as you choose complete obedience.”
~~~2 Corinthians 10:3-6 (TPT)~~~
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.”
Rejoice Marriage Ministries continues to give an untold number of spouses the courage, connection, and biblical foundation to remain faithful and committed to their spouse and their covenant marriage vows. The following affirmation should be an attachment included within the wedding vows and should be reread along with the vows each time difficulties arise within marriage.
I AM STANDING FOR THE HEALING OF MY MARRIAGE!
“I will not give up, give in, give out or give over ’til that healing takes place. I made a vow, I said the words, I gave the pledge, I gave a ring, I took a ring, I gave myself, I trusted GOD, and said the words, and meant the words… in sickness and in health, in sorrow and in joy, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in good times and in bad…so I am standing NOW, and will not sit down, let down, slow down, calm down, fall down, look down or be down ’til the breakdown is torn down!
I refuse to put my eyes on outward circumstances, or listen to prophets of doom, or buy into what is trendy, worldly, popular, convenient, easy, quick, thrifty, or advantageous… nor will I settle for a cheap imitation of God’s real thing, nor will I seek to lower God’s standard, twist God’s will, rewrite God’s word, violate God’s covenant, or accept what God hates, namely divorce!
In a world of filth, I will stay pure; surrounded by lies I will speak the truth; where hopelessness abounds, I will hope in God: where revenge is easier, I will bless instead of curse; and where the odds are stacked against me, I will trust in God’s faithfulness.
I am a STANDER, and I will not acquiesce, compromise, quarrel or quit. I have made the choice, set my face, entered the race, believed the Word, and trusted God for all the outcome.
I will allow neither the reaction of my spouse, nor the urging of my friends, nor the advice of my loved ones, nor economic hardship, nor the prompting of the devil to make me let up, slow up, blow up, or give up ’til my marriage is healed.”
“Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him’,…So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”
“The foremost question on the heart of any prodigal who ever gives thought to returning home is a simple one; ‘What’s different now?’ It does not matter if you are separated because of adultery, abuse, alcoholism, or any of the rest of the alphabet of causes, your spouse wants to know what has changed so that this nightmare will not repeat itself” Bob Steinkamp.
Granted most standing spouses are not to blame for their prodigal leaving the marriage, yet anyone who has chosen to stand for their marriage to be restored does come to the point where they also begin to take responsibility for their part in the marital issues.
While none of us initially realize we have our own issues which must be addressed, Rejoice Marriage Ministries compares the spouse who seemingly has chosen to walk away from their marriage with the parable told by Jesus of the prodigal son.
“And he said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.”
