“Who better to resurrect an ash heap of a marriage than the creator of marriage Himself?” (Marla Kloenckner)

If you’re finding yourself in need of help in your marriage we pray you’ll find the following to be inspiring. Jim Cymbala (the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York City) spoke on a recent broadcast on Focus on the Family about the power of prayer and how it has changed his life. The following is some of what he shared on the subject of marriage:

“There have been more books written about marriages than in all the preceding 2000 years of church history-more books in the last 40 years have been written on marriage and yet go to any pastor in America and ask him if there aren’t more problems in marriages today than ever before. We’ve got all the “how-to’s” but what we’re missing is the praise of God. Those that pray together stay together.

Even so, there will be difficult moments—I’m not being overly simplistic about this. But God says, “Call upon Me and I will answer you. I will show you great and marvelous things” —just give Me a chance!

• The problems we’re experiencing in married life isn’t because we’re lacking knowledge or the “how-to’s.” All of that has its place. But brother and sister, when the rubber meets the road what we need is the power of God. The Bible says, “And therefore, let us come boldly to the throne of God so that we might receive grace and mercy in our time of need.”

• God, over my life and possibly yours writes, “You have not because you ask not.” In other words God has this table set for us and He sees you and your spouse and He knows exactly what you need. He has the table spread with every type of wisdom, grace, and strength you could ever possibly need. But He says the only way you can get it is to pull up to the table and “Taste and see that the Lord is good” —and pulling up to the table is called PRAYER.

In other words God doesn’t tell us “pray because I want my people to pray—He says pray because I have all kinds of things for you and “when you ask you shall receive.”

• And the hard cases that some of you are facing—know that the ultimate answer isn’t going to come from going to another seminar. Seminars have their limits. What they are is an arrow that points you to the throne of grace. But when you get there—WATCH OUT! —because God “can do exceedingly beyond what we ask or think.”

I’m not being simplistic. But we have too many technicians invading the church that are into “methodology.” The answer is not in methodology, the answer is in the power of the Holy Spirit. The answer is in the grace of God.

(Methodology helps you as you work WITH the power of God—because of the power of God—and in the strength and wisdom that God can give you through His Holy Spirit.)

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There was more to Jim Cymbala’s message that we hope you’ll get a copy of the program for the radio broadcast for January 7, 2004 at www.family.org. We pray you’ll truly take this message to heart because it’s invaluable for all of us to truly grasp.We can personally testify that without plugging into the power of God through prayer, our own marriage would be another divorce disaster. Pulling up to the table called PRAYER has been the wisest move we’ve made to strengthen our marriage. God is in the miracle-working business. We’ve experienced that personally and have seen it lived out in the lives of countless others.In closing we’d like to share some additional thoughts on this subject shared by Ron Hutchcraft in his book, “Start Your Trip with a Full Tank… and Other Spiritual Jump Starts” (Baker Book House Company) In it he talked about the marriage miracle that Christ performed at a wedding in Cana (see John 2:1-11). He wrote:

Take notice of where Jesus did His first miracle—at a wedding. We saw our own personal miracle at our wedding, and we’ve seen a lot since.. Maybe your marriage could use a miracle right now.

That day in Cana, there was a change that no man or woman could make. Nobody can change water into wine, but Jesus did. Maybe right now, some change is urgently needed in your home. Have you been to your knees TOGETHER yet?

Have you poured out your mess, your pain, and your dark feelings to the Lord—crying out together for Jesus’ healing in your marriage? The less you feel like doing it, the more you need to. And if your partner absolutely will not, don’t let that stop you. This passage says Jesus had been INVITED to this wedding, to this marriage. Why don’t you invite Him into your marriage?

Close the door to leaving or quitting. Ask God to show you the hope factors that you can build on. You’ve looked at the hopeless factors long enough. Can you pray this? “Lord, we can’t make it work, and I don’t know how You would, but we beg You to do what we can’t do in this marriage.”

2,000 years ago, in the midst of a marriage, Jesus met an impossible need with His supernatural intervention. Today, the scene is set again with you and the one you’ve promised your life to.

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We’ve experienced the miraculous power of God in our own marriage—more than once. It’s happened because we asked Jesus to be the Lord of our marriage as well as the Lord of our (individual) lives. We pray you’ll reach out to God and ask Him—whose very name means love—to teach you how to love each other in a way that honors Him and each other.Steve and Cindy Wright

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