Monday 3 December 2012

OUR FAITH IS UNDER ATTACK PART 3



The divorce rate among believers these days is amazing; and this statistic includes Pastors and General Overseers but as we say, they are human after all. What grieves me the most is the number of very young believers I know who are divorced and guess what! If the truth be told, a number of those still married might as well be divorced because what they have cannot be called marriage. I must say though, that I respect their courage in holding on because the fact that the marriage is turbulent is not always an indication of how it will end; the latter end may be great.
 
I have never been married so there must be a lot I don’t yet know about marriage; but I know that being married does not mean you know all there is to know about marriage. From one marriage to the other, there are differences since no two people are exactly alike. To a large extent, the uniqueness of every marriage is created by the nature of both parties directly involved and the only set of rules/principles that will apply to every marriage will be those written by the creator of marriage, God, who says He Hates divorce.  If we believe that the word of God is true as we know it is, and accept to hinge our lives on it, then we must accept its veracity in the area of marriage and hinge our marriages on this word. 

Malachi 2: 16 “’For I hate divorce!’ says, the Lord, the God of Israel.”

Obviously, there are many things we do that God does not like but we must accept that divorce is one of them. Though we preach the gospel, we inadvertently, make it seem ineffective by our actions even in the area of marriage. So that it is beginning to look like culture and other religion are more effective in keeping marriages together than the word of God. It should not to be so. God does not insist that we all marry though the bible says marriage is a good thing and I believe it is; it is certainly not a joke neither is it some kind of game. It is a union one enters with the greatest sense of responsibility. I say this carefully for fear of sounding judgmental because I know people who entered with all seriousness and are divorced today; wonderful people who I love very much.  So what do we do; we can’t continue like this.

I honestly think it is time we address the rate of divorce amongst believers and the ease with which it is happening. We cannot keep pretending like this is not a problem and trying to explain the word of God concerning divorce and remarriage within the limitations that have been created in our minds because our obvious reality otherwise we will be moving further and further away from the truth. It is best to put the truth before us that we may walk toward it. We may falter but God will pick us up and help us achieve His written goal for us. As long as we continue to think of the word of God in the context of what is convenient for us, we will not only fall short of God’s standard, but also live short of the promises of God to us.

I am by no means suggesting that in all circumstances you must remain in the marriage. In some circumstances, divorce may be the only option; but we must now begin to look at what needs to change to reduce the number of people who find themselves in such marriages. We truly need to evaluate the way we reach the decision to marry and choice of partner. Could something be wrong with our pre-marriage counseling in the church? Divorce can never be the best thing for anyone otherwise God would have loved it. We have to decide that it shall not be the norm in Christianity.

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