I recently listened to this message by Don Currin which was preached at the February Bentley Camp and it is so good! Even though I'm single there were a lot of lessons learned from it, and a lot of these things can be applied to other relationships besides marriage. I can only imagine how helpful it would be to those of you who are already married. Please make time to listen to it....you won't regret it.
While reading this week I came upon Psalm 1:3 which says..."He (the righteous man) is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers." For some reason this was much more impacting than it has ever been for me. In all that he does? That statement sounds too good to be true! But then I began to think about what prosperity really is. Webster's dictionary defines prosperity as "the condition of being successful or thriving." It adds that this is usually economical, but not always. When most of us hear the word "prosperity" we do think economics. We picture someone with plenty of money in the savings, two nice cars in the garage, a comfortable home, a booming business, etc. But why don't we think on a deeper level? Why don't we think of prosperity in terms of spiritual thriving? That is what this verse is talking about. Here is spiritual prosperity: 1) Draw all nourishment from the stream of living water, 2) Continue to yield up your fruit in season, and 3) Separate yourself from anything that might cause you to wither. Abiding by these things will cause your soul to thrive and God will bless you with spiritual, eternal prosperity.
A virtuous woman is a woman of spirit, who has the command of her own spirit and knows how to manage her affairs, one that is pious and industrious, and a help meet for a man. A virtuous woman is a woman of resolution, who, having espoused good principles, is firm and steady to them, and will not be frightened with winds and clouds from any part of her duty. The difficulty of meeting with such a one: "Who can find her?" This intimates that good women are very scarce, and many that seem to be so do not prove so; he that thinks he has found a virtuous woman may be deceived. But he that designs to marry ought to seek diligently for such a one, to have this principally in his eye, in all his enquiries, and to take heed that he be not biased by beauty or elegance, wealth or parentage, dressing well or dancing well; for all these may be and yet the woman not be virtuous, and there is many a woman truly virtuous who yet is not recommended by these advantages. The unspeakable worth of such a one, and the value which he that has such a wife ought to put upon her, showing it by his thankfulness to God and his kindness and respect to her, whom he must never think he can do too much for. Her price is far above rubies, and all the rich ornaments with which vain women adorn themselves. The more rare such good wives are, the more they are to be valued.
Today I was thinking about spiritual warfare comparing it to earthly warfare. In earthly warfare it is possible to lose many battles, yet still win the war. This is made possible not simply by winning more battles, but instead by winning the right battles. In spiritual warfare even though a battle may seem lost, it may not be. Imagine that you have prayed and hoped for something that did not come to pass. Does that mean that a battle has been lost? Imagine that a dear Christian was martyred for their faith. Is that a battle lost? I don't believe so. If God is sovereign, in complete control, and does all things well, then there is no true loss. He cannot lose a battle! How wonderful it is to have a God on our side who is incapable of losing. In fact, because of Him, the war is as good as won.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some famous quotes that can be applied to spiritual warfare:
