Living On The Edge...Loving Relentlessly

In life today, we are faced with a multitude of problems that tend to destroy our family relationships and challenge our belief in God and His mercy. We see this in our every day lives as we hear more and more of families being separated by divorce.

It also brings to mind the question of our faith in God and the true meaning of Romans 8;28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

Hebrews 11;1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 4;16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

So it was then with us and sometimes still is in our lives.

The Unexpected Happens:

At age 64, and being married for 43 years with 5 living children and 14 grandchildren, one day it seemed as though the devil himself had moved in to destroy our lives together.

As a husband, I had never considered divorce or separation as really something that would ever happen in my life.

Don’t get me wrong, over the past 43 years my wife and I have had plenty of disagreements and arguments over various situations as I am sure most married couples have. But divorce! Not on your life.

Then one day unexpectedly I was alone and confronted with a notice that my marriage was to be over and divorce was immanent.

Then came the good news!

In the state of Colorado, you cannot contest a divorce proceeding. You can only by law, contest the monetary settlement and child custody issues. Thank God, our children were grown and we had little financial worth.

What could I do?

Being a good problem solver and fixer up of things, or I thought I was, I tried to contact my wife and convince her that we could work things out.

The next exciting thing that happened was a restraining order prohibiting me from making any kind of contact with my wife including phone calls and notification that she was filing for divorce. Pretty exciting wouldn’t you say?

If there are any kinds of hell on earth, I think there are two, the separation of a person from God, secondly a man or woman separated from their mate and family.

As a Christian, I decided that I could not only get the brothers and sisters (other church members) to pray for me, but I could ask them to approach my wife and try to convince her to change her mind.

They agreed to pray for me but felt that by contacting my wife they would be breaking the restraining order and suggested that I wait on the Lord and be patient. (I was not a Patient Man, but am more so now)

After spending a night in jail for talking to my wife on the telephone, I became acutely aware of being on the outside looking in and being overcome with a terrible feeling of helplessness.

As I said, patience is not one of my greater virtues.

I asked myself, what could I do now to save my marriage.

In the scripture, it is written “bring a child up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and when he gets old he will not depart from it”, thank God for my Christian parents. It is also written in the scriptures “commit thy ways unto the Lord and He shall bring it to pass”, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee”, and Jesus said, “in this world you will have tribulation, but do not be concerned for I have overcome the world”, he also said, “ask my father whatever you will that is according to his will and he will give it to you“.

It is also written in scripture that His will is, “what therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder”. That leaves divorce out as far as I was concerned.

In looking back on it all, I have two questions to ask. Was it a blessing? Or was it a curse?

Does God keep His word?

Is He faithful as He claims?

The answer is yes

Deuteronomy 31:8 And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.

Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Isaiah 42:16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

Thank you for sharing about the faithfulness of God in your life.

He is an awesome God!