Rise To The Challenge

 

                          

Matthew 5:45

 

That you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

 

 

Difficulties are part of life; there’s no way around them. Each of us has faced our own heartbreaks — family problems, lost love, illness, injuries, career setbacks, Death, losses — life’s not always easy.
The question is: "How do we respond to our difficulties?" Do we rise to the challenge? Or do we sink into defeat and despair and depression? For many of us, it depends on the way we think about our difficulties.
Consider a difficulty of yours. Do you think it’s a punishment? Do you think it’s a test? Do you think it’s a challenge?
Your answers to these questions will tell you a great deal about how you are responding to this difficulty.
If you are thinking of the difficulty as a punishment, you’re focusing on what you did wrong.
If you are thinking of the difficulty as a test, you’re focusing on whether you will pass or fail.
If you are thinking of the difficulty as a challenge, you’re focusing on what you need to do now.
For us, challenge is the best choice — by far.

A challenge is a situation that requires us to use our inner resources, go beyond our imagined limits, and realize that we can be more than we previously thought possible.
This turns the difficulty into an opportunity for change, growth, energy, courage, resolution, commitment, perseverance, and moving-forward, being forward thinkers in marriage.

Marriage Prayer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lord, help us to remember when we first met and the strong love that grew between us. To work that love info practical things so nothing can divide us. We ask for words both kind & loving and hearts always ready to ask forgiveness as well as forgive.

Dear Lord we put our marriage into your hands. Amen

Marriage4lifeinstitute.com

~Humility In Your Marriage~

Humility in your marriage

Humility in your marriage keeps you from depending on our own strengths. When Joshua first went against Ai Joshusa (7:3), he did not consult God but relied on the strength of his army to defeat the small city. Only after Israel was defeated did they turn to God and ask what happened. Sometimes, we need to ask ourselves; what happened in order for God to correct us.

Too often we rely on our own skills and strength, especially when the task before us seems easy. We go to God only when the obstacles seem too great. However, only God knows what lies ahead. Consulting him, even when we are on a winning streak, may save us from great mistakes or misjudgments. God may want us to learn lessons, remove pride, or consult others before he will work through us.

 

 Humility in our marriage makes your prayers direct and honest to Him. Imagine praying the way Joshua prayed to God. This is not a formal church prayer; it is the prayer of a man who is afraid and confused by what is happening around him. Joshua poured out his real thoughts to God. Hiding your needs from God is ignoring the only one who can really help. God welcomes your honest prayers and wants you to express your true and deep feelings to him. Any believer can become more honest in prayer by remembering that God is all-knowing and all-powerful, all seeing and that his love is everlasting. But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply to go and wash and be cured!”

 (2 Kings 5:13)

 

Outpouring Of The Spirit

 

 

Paul had a Holy Ghost Moment on the road to Damascus. Cornelius had a Holy Ghost experience  in a vision. Cornelius Sent, Peter went, Paul  prayed, Ananias obeyed.

It is our sincere desire and prayer to God to see marriages, family, our world, continent, country, region, state, metro, county, community, city, neighborhood, streets, neighbors, and  home, to have an outpouring of the Holy Ghost.

We know from experience that nothing is so real as an experience that causes one to know Jesus through an experience that confirms and puts an exclamation point to those things you intellectually understand and connect with in your heart.

If it is a dream, vision or some other thing that causes you to know God is working, reaching helping, touching, providing for "YOU", it is you!

We believe prophetically; we are properly positioned to see an unprecedented outpouring of the Spirit of God especially on marriages.

Our prayer is that we are positioning  ourselves personally in such away; that God would not only step into our own life in a greater way, but that he be the catalyst for these events that are going  to happen in the lives of others.

To be salt and light; to be a flaming witness.

As is our promise from Jesus, "Ye shall receive power to be my witnesses after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you."

We see Jesus himself, he understood that being baptized by John was a necessary thing. We see that Jesus as man needed to be baptized and when what was needed was done, there was a visible, spiritual and unforgettable manifestation of the Spirit of God upon him.

We see this same pattern repeated in scripture; that if we will simply line up our lives to those things it teaches us, it puts us in a position to not only see it and hear it for ourselves, but others standing by will be effected and find confirmation in their own life that God has  purposed for them.

In Acts 2, the promise came because people obeyed the directions of Jesus and positioned themselves at the right place, doing the right thing and when the right time came, WOW.

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14

Let us position ourselves for a Holy Ghost Moment. It could be that when we get where we need to be, doing what we need to do, God will show up in such an incredible way that others will be drawn by the anointing of the Holy Ghost.

Marital Coaches,

Pastors Jerome & Ivy Moore

 

 

Win Dinner For 2 -Spot Light Couple

SpotLight Couple

It’s easy to become a Spotlight Couple. Both husband and wife just need to complete an easy form. This fun activity is a great opportunity to share your advice and experiences to success that will help strengthen other couples. You can also use this as a time to showcase your accomplishments. Just put "Spotlight Couple" in the subject line and we will send you the form and the instructions for participation! marriage4lifeinstitute@gmail.com

The Need of Trust

No book has affected our  life more than the Song of Solomon.

For any book to so impact a person’s life is good but rare. Usually, a book ends with its reading. God’s Word, however, provides an unending mine of riches enabling us to dig for whatever we need. Song of Solomon contains nuggets of gold that unlock the mystery of love and trust. These nuggets are the keys to a growing marriage.

In other Bible books, we have commands and illustrations that tell us how to have a good marriage. If we would obey them, we would do well.
But there are things that keep us from having confidence in those commands that they really work. We shouldn’t have this perspective, but many do. They are the same people who point out all the problems occurring in the marriages around them.

There are so many marriage problems surfacing that one wonders how the world has endured this long. Each week we are made aware of another layer of significant marital difficulties in the people around us. Your experience is probably similar. We would have suffered the same condition had it not been for the power of God’s Word that was revealed during times of meditation on His book. Studying  the Song of Solomon, thanks to the prompting of the Spirit of God, we did. Our life has been greatly changed.
We must admit not all the changes and impact came immediately, but what will be shared below are the truths that set a foundation by which all the changes could be made. Maybe you wonder what is it that made such a difference in our life.

www.marriage4lifeinstitute.com

 Everyone wants acceptance, and we were no different. Relationships enable a person to see himself/herself from a different perspective. Loving relationships enable a person to look through the other person’s eyes at his/her own life and get a more accurate picture.

We have  learned about warmth and acceptance growing up. Divorce, bitterness and criticism left us emotionally crippled.  These problems are becoming more common in children as more marriages are going downhill.

The Song of Solomon came into our life like a breath of fresh air. Helping to unlock the ideas in that book was reading and getting understanding. It was the same truth that God began to vividly teach us in the scriptures–God’s love.

Only God’s grace and wisdom has kept us from being another statistic. Let us go on and share how He did this. We may be oversimplifying the process, but the keys that unlocked certain doors of understanding in our life ushered us into places we never would otherwise have been able to reach. You can get there too. t’s first pray.

“Dear Lord, would you please break through our stubborn and blind hearts. We don’t deserve your love. We can’t even understand it. Much like the sun, it is so bright that we have put on sunglasses and keep out of its light. We have learned to live in the shadows of darkness rather than the glories of your love. Bring us close, dear Lord, bring us closer to you that we in turn could have great marriages. In Christ’s Glorious Name we pray, Amen."

Growing in Intimacy

                                              Growing in Intimacy


 

Many couples wistfully remember those sweet, innocent times before marriage that they were so interested in each other. They would go out of their way just to see each other. How does a couple get back to that state? In one sense you can’t because your motivation is not the same. In another sense, however, you can.

As the intimacy quiz revealed, you need to prioritize time to grow together. You actually need carve out time in your schedule to be together. It is a simple act of obedience for the husband to cleave to or cherish his wife. He will spend time with her to ‘know’ her more. The time will need to be cut out of other segments of life such as entertainment and work. Parents may need to reduce some of the time used carting the children to their many activities. Your relationship is important.
We believe there are three components to a growing marriage: Personal sharing, mutual understanding and deepening commitment. It is a cycle that goes round and round, growing deeper each time. Let’s look at these three important aspects of growing an intimate marriage.

• Personal Sharing

 If a couple would just talk more to each other, they would grow in their intimacy. Clearly, a major challenge to intimacy in our modern world is busyness. As long as man and woman allow their times together to be leftovers from the busy world, they may as well assume that there will not be much growth.

• Mutual Understanding

Depth of personal conversation allows us to dive deeper into the lives and experiences of our spouse. Sometimes when my wife feels she can’t tell me the whole story, she will write it down in a page or two and hand it to me. This way I can’t interrupt her thought process. She also has a chance to clarify her own thoughts.

• Deepening Commitment

Just as a child cannot grow into an adult overnight, so the couple cannot mature in their intimacy through one or two special experiences like a wedding. It is a life-long process.