Divorcing God Daily

This post deals with the extremely delicate topic of divorce. To some I'm just a kid; so I don't pretend to have all the answers, or be right about everything. I have lived through my parent's divorce as a teenager, so I feel somewhat qualified to talk about it. I know what it did to me - what it still does to me. I know a little bit about who God is too.

If Christians are not brave enough to talk about it, we'll never get it right.

Last evening, as I was talking with my good friend, we hit the topic of divorce.

My parents are divorced, they separated when I was about 13, and divorced when I was about 17. For most of my younger childhood though, I grew up with both parents. It was when I started to define who I was going to be that I had more time on my own.

Let's move up to approximately 4 years ago. It was the day before my wedding. I felt an extremely deep sense of fear. I reluctantly, and in a very frustrated fashion, poured out my feelings about this fear to my wife-to-be late that night (the night before we were getting married).

Just for a moment, let's talk about the word covenant before I digress too much.

Near the beginning, at least in the bible, God made a covenant with Noah. (Genesis 6:18)

There was a covenant made with Abram (Genesis 15, Genesis 17)

Much later, God continues to communicate the same covenant through Moses to Israel when saving them and bringing them out of Egypt (Exodus 6, Exodus 19)

Covenant where Jesus is concerned?

Luke 22:20

"In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."

2 Corinthians 3 (The glory of the new covenant)

Hebrews 7:18-25

"The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19(for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
20And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, 21but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him: "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever.' " 22Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.
23Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them."

The dictionary defines covenant as an agreement between 2 people that they will, or will not, do something. It also defines it as the bible does as an alternate definition, that it is God's agreement with people.

See, here's the thing, when you get married, you stand before the person you are marrying, and you stand before God. You stand before both and basically say, "No matter what happens, I'm going to stick with you until death." When you do this, you enter into a covenant that God is involved in. You stand before God whether you believe in him or not. If you didn't stand before God, you are not married. Marriage is a covenant relationship. It is a relationship that is between a husband, a wife, and God.

Pastor's or priests sometimes say, "by the power vested in me..."

Who do we think is doing the "vesting of power"? The only thing that can "vest true power in you" is God. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. If you don't believe in God, take it as a lesson. If you do believe in God, take it as a reminder.

Matthew 5:31

""It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.' 32But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery."

This is Jesus speaking. He makes a statement about what should be the past. There is a clear offense, and a clear exception in his statement. The offense of a husband that divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress. Not only that, but anyone who marries that divorced woman commits adultery." Which makes sense. Why does it make sense? Because of the covenant. Without the idea that marriage is a union between 3 entities (2 people, 1 God), you can argue this all you want and I can't refute it.

To everyone that believes in Christ, the Bible is your rulebook. You should not, although you have the choice, to divorce God from your daily stuff. If divorce is happening in your marriage (like paperwork and legally) - divorce from one another has already been going on for awhile. Not only divorce from each other, but also divorce from God. In the covenant...there were/are 3. You can't really divorce one without divorcing the other in your decision. I'm not saying God doesn't forgive you or go with you (as you already read) - but you divorced God from your decision. There is a separation, a compartmentalization that went on. You locked God out of your world, and made the decision on your own (like we do so often with so much sin).

Read it and follow it. Sometimes, we mess up, because we're human. If you made a decision to get divorced after you became a Christian (without adultery or death in the mix), you made a choice that doesn't reflect your faith. I know what you're thinking. What about abuse? My husband / wife hit me! He/She hit my kids! My life was in danger!

I don't understand it either. Neither did the disciples. What Jesus said to them was extremely hard to hear - but even harder to live.

Matthew 19:1-12

"1When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. 2Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
3Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?"
4"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' 5and 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'? 6So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
7"Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?"
8Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."
10The disciples said to him, "If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry."
11Jesus replied, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."

That being said, God is good.

Here's what I mean by that.

Romans 8:10

"8But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

If you have divorced, and also believe in Jesus, God is with you. I know thus far, it sounds like I'm beating up on those of you who are divorced for any reason, and that is not the case. My point is not to "beat up" on anyone here. The truth is the truth, but it must be spoken in love. I needed to lay some groundwork above before writing what the deal is.

The deal is this, if you know Christ and are in, or ever encounter a situation of difficulty or challenge with your spouse...you need to seek Christ (together preferably) to provide power, guidance, reconciliation, joy, peace. God is love, and it is the only love that lasts forever. Without seeking Christ and letting your relationship be led by the Holy Spirit, be covered always in the grace of God, and full of forgiveness, a "Christian" marriage is doomed to fail. Period. The truth is that everything you need to succeed in a marriage "under God" comes from God. You cannot do it on your own, like so many other things that go on with the life of a Christian.

If you do not know Christ. It is better for you to know Christ. Without Christ in my life, I would not have a marriage. I would not have ever had the strength to stand there and promise to love someone until death. My parents couldn't do it, why should I even try? I was so scared, I was terrified of failing at it. I was sure I'd screw it up somehow (and I was right). My marriage is held together because of the power of God; plain and simple. I find stuff to love my wife with I never knew was available because God is gracious and lets me borrow some stuff He knows she will like. The same is true for my wife toward me. He is the center; He is the hope; He is the all in all. I'm getting better at it (at least I hope), but without His help I would have nothing to go on...nothing that worked anyway.

You may very well live this life in happiness, but without the knowledge of Christ you will not be saved from an eternity in hell, absent of the presence of God. I say this to you so that you might share in the joy and the peace and the everlasting life that is Christ Jesus for those who believe in Him. Jesus Christ died for your sins, he sacrificed himself as the Son of God to become payment for the sins of all people. All sins all people have committed have been paid for. This is not a permission slip to continue sinning (which Paul says in the New Testament) but it is a special gift of God that we may receive his rich mercy and infinite supply of grace through Christ Jesus and be ushered with him into the presence of God covered by His blood that is without sin. I have no right to stand before God of my own accord. I should be in hell, just like all people except for Jesus Christ. But that was not the plan. God had a plan for redemption, for reconciliation to himself; and that is only Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:1-4

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. "

These verses are supposed to change how we live - - they are designed so that we remember who we are in Christ toward right action. Live according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh alone, the mind alone, or the emotions alone. The Spirit was designed to trump all of these things, not be picked up and set down like a toy that serves us whenever we want. We are in service to One who is infinitely greater, and full of love. Doesn't One like that deserve your obedience?

Seeking Breakthrough

Matthew 17:14-18 (NKJV)
And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” 17 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.

The thought behind this verse in Matthew has always intrigued me. The story of a man who takes his son to the disciples fully expecting them to heal his son. Or should I say, fully expecting God to heal his son through them. Yet, that doesn't happen. For some reason, even after Jesus has "sent" his disciples to perform miracles, and they have performed miracles before this...they cannot do it.
I'd like to hit pause on the story here, and think about what that means for us...today. Today, there is no "person" of Jesus sitting around, waiting for the time when someone fails to perform a miracle. Thinking about it like this, there is a danger in us being somehow unequipped as the disciples were in this situation.

Let's look at this for just a moment. The deal is that this boy has a "demon" according to the bible. Some translations say "epileptic," yet the root cause is understood to be a demon, something evil and from Satan to plague humans. The disciples try to cast it out, but the boy's state is unchanged. The boy is not healed. When Jesus hears that the disciples could not take care of this, there is a statement he makes about the "faithless and perverse" generation. I can almost hear the tone, like an exhausted tone. Jesus calls for the boy to be brought to him. The boy is healed.

So we have the disciples, who on some level are "faithless and perverse" where Jesus wasn't.
Now it is the same power healing the boy through the disciples, and through Jesus. So that means there is something about Jesus that was different than the disciples.

Matthew 17:19-21
"19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. 21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Jesus points to the "unbelief" of the disciples as a reason they could not cast out the demon. Yet after describing that, there is more. In vs. 21 Jesus says, "However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."

OK, I've gone long enough without just saying it.
I believe that we (as believers in Christ) hold the keys to unlock the power of God in our lives. Specifically, the decision we make to pray and the decision we make to fast for spiritual breakthrough. I firmly believe that there are things that God wants to do in people's lives on this earth that aren't done because we don't prepare ourselves to usher them into being.

Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Now I'm not saying to stop eating today, because that is not biblical.
Fasting is refraining from "something" (most often food) for a spiritual purpose. I would bet that one of many spiritual purposes that Jesus had fasted / prayed for was to cast out the demon in that boy. That obedience unlocked the power that was needed. See, Jesus was God in the flesh. He had the foreknowledge to know what was coming his way. There was times spent with the Father in secret where I think this foreknowledge was extended and made clear so that Jesus would know what action he needed to take to be obedient to the will of the Father. Jesus at this point knew that it was God's design to heal this boy, so he could make statements about what was preventing it from happening separate from the will of God.

There are many other examples of fasting breakthrough throughout the bible. Moses, David, Elijah, and Daniel to name a few; not to mention Peter (was fasting when he saw a vision to go to the Gentiles), and on many occasions Paul.

I find myself in a spot in life where I "need" breakthrough spiritually. There are health issues with my family that I'd like to see taken care of. Doctors can't find a true cause. That's the great thing, for those of us who believe in Christ, we will always have a doctor who is capable of healing. What if your healing lies behind a fast? What if it lies behind 40 days of fasting?

I have fasted before. A few 3 day things and 1 time a 14 day fast drinking just water. While I'm thinking of it, don't fast without drinking water. Water is a faster's best friend. Drink water, and plenty of it. When you fast, give up something that matters to God. Food normally matters to all of us, especially certain types of food. Only try longer fasts after you have tried shorter ones, and only try complete fasts (no food or water) after doing a few longer fasts so you are familiar with the territory. There is faith about true fasting, and there is focus on God. If you have any questions or doubts, consult a medical doctor as you fast. They should tell you that it has true medicinal benefits and can help keep your body healthy. I say that understanding that all of our bodies are different, which is why you should talk to a doctor that is familiar with you and can guide you the first few times.

Even though I have fasted before, I don't personally know the extent of blessing found behind fasting. Don't get me wrong, I have experienced blessing behind a fast, I just hear many people talk about blessings and how God "opens the floodgates" when people fast. Like fasting is a key to unlocking deeper relationship with God and unleashing the power of the Holy Spirit. I want that in my relationship with God. I "hunger" for deeper relationship with Him that is meaninful, practical, and can show people that He is the only God that is to receive glory, worship, honor and praise. Remember, no food is not enough. Have purpose.

I think it is time for me to find out "how deep the rabbit hole goes."
Chances are it is infinite, because God is infinite.

I am reading a book right now by Jentezen Franklin called "fasting."
I recommend it for anyone thinking about this topic. I am finding it greatly helpful and encouraging.