**Let's Pray Together!** 
**Marriage Support**: 
**Health & Healing**: Lift up prayers for 
**Family Unity**: Pray for 
**Strength & Guidance**: Pray for 
**Peace & Joy**: Pray for 
Hello everyone! Let's lift up these urgent prayers:
CONSIDER IT PURE JOY
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. James 1:2-3
This scripture was laid on my heart a few days ago while driving in the car, home from applying for an apartment for myself and my children. I have been overwhelmed with deep grief the last month, because both my husband and I have to move at the same time, and yet he refuses to live with me, despite the intimate relationship that has developed between us since I began standing in earnest three months ago. I had cried out, “What is Your will, Lord??†And the Lord revealed to me that my husband is going the wrong way, trying to build a house on the sand, apart from me and apart from God. In response to my husband’s sin, the Lord spoke to me strongly from the Book of Ruth, telling me to leave my town and move into the city where my husband lives, even though it means uprooting the children and greatly decreasing our quality of life as we join him in the far country.
But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go, I will go, and where you stay I will stay.†Ruth 1:16a
Maybe you are at a place in your stand where you are struggling to understand how the scriptures can talk about having joy, when you are sacrificing so much and your spouse seems to not care about the damage he or she is doing to your family. Maybe you are battling feelings of anxiety at which road to take, or depression at the constant rejection from your mate, or grief at the length of your stand with no end in sight.
The Lord directed me to the account of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane prior to his arrest in the Gospel of Luke:
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.†An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. Luke 22:42-44
Our Lord knew that He was going to be crucified and had predicted His death many times before. He was completely obedient to His Father's will. Yet still, at the eleventh hour, He prayed for the Father to take away his suffering. Jesus was in anguish, so much so that his body was in massive distress. I think it’s safe to say that Jesus was feeling no joy in that moment! Our Lord was without sin, so we can have confidence in following His example and learning from Him. My friends, if you are struggling with a lack of joy in your lives, take heart! Joy is not something that we necessarily FEEL in all moments of our stand. Do not let your emotions deceive you or crush you with feelings of failure or inadequacy. Jesus knows how you feel! He knows the pain that you are going through, so you can bring it all to Him and He will strengthen you.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. Hebrews 4:15
James 1 does not say FEEL pure joy, it says CONSIDER it pure joy. This speaks to a state of mind, rather than a state of emotion. And how can we consider it pure joy? Because when we obey the Lord by laying down our lives and leaving everything to follow His call, we become like Him. Joy follows obedience.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and become obedient to death- even death on a cross! Philippians 2:5-8
You and I have been called to become a servant to our beloved spouse. To give up everything that is to our advantage and risk it all to bring home the one who is wandering from the Lord. By calling you to stand for your marriage, Jesus is inviting you to participate WITH HIM in the redemption of your spouse, and possibly also your children and others that you don’t even know about yet! He is calling you to walk beside Him and learn from Him every minute of every day, and in so doing, to become like Him. And therein lies the joy!!! The joy comes from knowing Christ and being found in Him. Read Philippians 3:7-11.
So when your emotions begin to overwhelm you, don’t look at your circumstances! Read the story of Peter walking on water in Matthew 14:22-33. He began to sink the moment he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the storm around him. No! Keep your eyes FIXED on Jesus! Submit your will to the Lord, develop tunnel vision, and pursue knowing Christ above all else. Then you will be able to walk on the water, to do the impossible, and to participate with Christ in the redemption of many souls.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:1-3
Considering it pure joy in Canada,
Kim
Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. James 1:2-3
This scripture was laid on my heart a few days ago while driving in the car, home from applying for an apartment for myself and my children. I have been overwhelmed with deep grief the last month, because both my husband and I have to move at the same time, and yet he refuses to live with me, despite the intimate relationship that has developed between us since I began standing in earnest three months ago. I had cried out, “What is Your will, Lord??†And the Lord revealed to me that my husband is going the wrong way, trying to build a house on the sand, apart from me and apart from God. In response to my husband’s sin, the Lord spoke to me strongly from the Book of Ruth, telling me to leave my town and move into the city where my husband lives, even though it means uprooting the children and greatly decreasing our quality of life as we join him in the far country.
But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go, I will go, and where you stay I will stay.†Ruth 1:16a
Maybe you are at a place in your stand where you are struggling to understand how the scriptures can talk about having joy, when you are sacrificing so much and your spouse seems to not care about the damage he or she is doing to your family. Maybe you are battling feelings of anxiety at which road to take, or depression at the constant rejection from your mate, or grief at the length of your stand with no end in sight.
The Lord directed me to the account of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane prior to his arrest in the Gospel of Luke:
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.†An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. Luke 22:42-44
Our Lord knew that He was going to be crucified and had predicted His death many times before. He was completely obedient to His Father's will. Yet still, at the eleventh hour, He prayed for the Father to take away his suffering. Jesus was in anguish, so much so that his body was in massive distress. I think it’s safe to say that Jesus was feeling no joy in that moment! Our Lord was without sin, so we can have confidence in following His example and learning from Him. My friends, if you are struggling with a lack of joy in your lives, take heart! Joy is not something that we necessarily FEEL in all moments of our stand. Do not let your emotions deceive you or crush you with feelings of failure or inadequacy. Jesus knows how you feel! He knows the pain that you are going through, so you can bring it all to Him and He will strengthen you.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. Hebrews 4:15
James 1 does not say FEEL pure joy, it says CONSIDER it pure joy. This speaks to a state of mind, rather than a state of emotion. And how can we consider it pure joy? Because when we obey the Lord by laying down our lives and leaving everything to follow His call, we become like Him. Joy follows obedience.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and become obedient to death- even death on a cross! Philippians 2:5-8
You and I have been called to become a servant to our beloved spouse. To give up everything that is to our advantage and risk it all to bring home the one who is wandering from the Lord. By calling you to stand for your marriage, Jesus is inviting you to participate WITH HIM in the redemption of your spouse, and possibly also your children and others that you don’t even know about yet! He is calling you to walk beside Him and learn from Him every minute of every day, and in so doing, to become like Him. And therein lies the joy!!! The joy comes from knowing Christ and being found in Him. Read Philippians 3:7-11.
So when your emotions begin to overwhelm you, don’t look at your circumstances! Read the story of Peter walking on water in Matthew 14:22-33. He began to sink the moment he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the storm around him. No! Keep your eyes FIXED on Jesus! Submit your will to the Lord, develop tunnel vision, and pursue knowing Christ above all else. Then you will be able to walk on the water, to do the impossible, and to participate with Christ in the redemption of many souls.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:1-3
Considering it pure joy in Canada,
Kim
Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.
