How To Pray For A Happy Marriage

There is a movement happening in Texas. It’s beginning with a small group of people who are prioritizing King Jesus in their home. Many of us in this movement didn’t grow up seeing a revival of happiness in our home. So for Jesus to ask us to be the change in our family tree and to break generational curses within our marriages, we feel the call to step forward. Even when our friends say we are crazy for not putting our jobs or our children over our marriage. We yield to the Biblical priority of our marriage being our greatest ministry to King Jesus!

We hear the high calling of Jesus to lift up our spouses first in life and in prayer. We will not pray the kind of prayer that says, “Please change my spouse”. These prayers so often feel “unanswered” because Jesus is planning to do a change in us! I am so grateful my wife didn’t wait for me to change to take the leap of faith Jesus was calling her to…….Happiness! She decided in her heart that she would take this step of faith called happiness and when she did, her freedom gave me the freedom to choose happiness for myself! Her powerful choice empowered me to rid myself of my excuses for discontentment. I was free to choose to not let my past or current pain become my identity.

We discovered pain is just temporary so why identify with something that is passing through? Even when pain seems like an eternity of a child hood to you, we don’t have to identify with pain but we can identify daily with the joy and happiness of Jesus! Do you believe Jesus is a life of joy or do you think He identifies with the temporary pain His followers cause Him? We see Him content and truly happy with you and I, the little children the Father has entrusted Him. For the believer, Jesus is the real you, and He desires to be the center of your marriage by first becoming the center of you! The most powerful prayer you can pray in marriage is this: “Jesus teach me to choose happiness even during pain and identify with you”.

Whatever pain you are experiencing today, we believe in you, that you can be truly joyful and happy and bring that to your marriage.

Heal the Home, Heal the World,

Brandon and Dana Pollard

http://www.graceforeternity.com

Can Our Marriage Be Rich In Kindness?

Some of us grew up watching tv sitcoms and they would have humorous back and forth banter by subtly putting down the other spouse. A studio background of laughter would cover up the lie that marriages couldn’t live in kindness and have fun building each other up. I subconsciously trained my mind to think that was normal in marriage to put my wife down. I never perceived my attitude of sarcasm as a problem until I had children and I heard them repeat my behavior of disrespect to each other.

What if we had a mental well that we could go to that was full of kindness when we didn’t have anything nice to say or give? You might be thinking, “It doesn’t come natural to say something kind to my spouse….. I don’t want to be fake!”. Well if you are like me, it’s possible you trained yourself to think negatively about your marriage by using sarcasm as a safety blanket. I think you would agree that kindness makes a way better safety blanket for our children but how much more for the greatest ministry King Jesus has entrusted us with on earth, our marriage!

Where is this mental well that we can draw kindness from? This well is in Christ Jesus, take a look below:

Ephesians 2:7 ESV

⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

One translation for “immeasurable” is infinite. So how much kindness does God want to show you on your journey on earth with Him? According to the Apostle Paul, an infinite amount of undeserved favor in kindness in Jesus! So freely you can draw from the well, and freely you can give to your spouse and not run dry.

Brandon and Dana Pollard http://www.graceforeternity.com

Heal The Home, Heal The World

A Marriage From Hell?

The overused pickup line overheard in high school back in the 90’s: “Are you an Angel?”……”Because you must have fallen from Heaven”. Never tried that cheesy line when dating, because I was way too cool (insecure) in high school. I can’t help but wonder today how many are in season of marriage believing their marriage (spouse) is from hell? “Pastor B, you can’t talk like that”,……..ok, well if you haven’t had struggles in your marriage where you thought your spouse was warring against you, please stop reading now.

For the rest of us who are honest or married more than 1 year, your marriage may have had such a season of struggle it felt like hell. This is why a revelation of grace (Jesus) is so important to us as a family. Our kids can even testify our marriage is not the same once we both understood how much we were forgiven and loved by Jesus. Nearly 25 years of marriage, we still have marriage struggles but not the kind that wars against each other (like hell on earth) but wars for each other (like heaven on earth).

Looking for a Bible Study that will encourage you to war for your marriage? Look no further….

Brandon and Dana Pollard

http://www.graceforeternity.com

Would You Choose Whom God Already Chose?

Very few Christians disagree that God in His sovereignty makes the best decisions and yet many are hesitant to say they are the best decision God made when forming them. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” -Jeremiah 1:5 Of all the people in the world God formed you, He knew your nationality, gender, skin color, parents, and time line. The God of the universe was waiting for you to be born not to know you, but for you to know Him. So the question is, “If you could choose to be anyone in the world, would you choose whom God already chose?”.

If today we could choose from a room full of billionaires (yes good looking) would we still choose our spouse? If the answer is a hesitant “no”….. good news……..the Lord is supplying health in our marriage relationships as we receive the grace of our Lord Jesus. The root of not having a daily priority of value for our spouse is often not having a rich enough value for ourself.

Proverbs 19:14

House and wealth are inherited from fathers,

    but a prudent wife is from the Lord.

Brandon Pollard

Heal the home, Heal the world.

http://www.graceforeternity.com