Every ministry marriage needs a miracle.
Ministry is just really hard on marriage. You need a miracle, either to make your marriage strong or to keep your marriage strong.
Our marriage was in real trouble thirty years ago. We always fought and did not want to be around each other.
My favorite pastime today is planning to travel with my wife. Today, we teach on marriage—but it took miracles to get us there.
Here are two miracles God has brought to our marriage that He can bring to you, too.
The Prayer Miracle
I am stunned at how few pastors and their wives pray over each other daily. I spoke at a denominational conference for pastors and wives. I asked everyone to close their eyes, and I asked the wives to wiggle their little fingers if their husbands rarely or never prayed over them. Fingers were wiggling all over the room!
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16 ESV).
If we aren’t doing it, we don’t really believe it. And what greater miracle of healing is there than the healing of a marriage?
When Donna and I found our marriage in trouble, God taught us how to pray out loud over each other, and He worked a miracle of healing in us. He will in you, too. Pastor, choose that miracle today. Make sure that yesterday was the last day of your life that your wife will not be fought for in the spiritual realm by you!
The “One Thing” Miracle
When our marriage struggles, we can become overwhelmed by all the things that are wrong. The fact is, we can’t fix or control everything in our marriages. But we can decide on one thing that we can pray about and seek to change.
During our marriage problems, I asked my wife, Donna, to tell me one thing I could change that would improve our marriage. (I realize now that simply caring enough to ask her was part of our healing!) She told me that she needed me to lead our children spiritually in the morning, which I had been failing to do, and it was frustrating her. That was a pretty clear thing to change and was in my ability to control. And when I did, God began to work a miracle in our whole family!
Don’t try to fix everything at once. Focus on one thing and watch the Lord begin to change your life and your marriage.
And consider this version of the old Serenity Prayer as your own prayer for your marriage:
God grant me the serenity
to accept the people I cannot change,
The courage to change the one I can,
And the wisdom to know it’s me.
Don’t blame your spouse. Don’t wait for the miracle. BE the miracle your marriage needs. God is with you. He will help you. Go get your ministry marriage miracle!