Reflection questions:
What are the biggest challenges you and your spouse are facing right now? Have you invited God into those struggles, or have you been trying to fix them on your own?
Are there unresolved wounds or past hurts in your marriage that only God can heal? What steps can you take to surrender them to Him?
How well does your marriage reflect Christ’s love for the church? In what areas do you need God’s intervention to build unity, faithfulness, and selflessness?
In what areas of parenting do you feel the most overwhelmed or inadequate? How can you trust God to provide what only He can?
Are you relying more on your own strength and wisdom in parenting, or are you regularly seeking God's guidance in raising your children? Are there areas where He may be leading you to parent differently?
Have you been focusing more on immediate behavior or long-term heart transformation in your children? How does Proverbs 22:6 encourage you in the long journey of parenting?
Need help getting clarity? Check out this free LifeScore assessment.
Sample Prayer:
“God, soften my heart toward my spouse and teach me to love them like You do. Heal what feels broken in my marriage in ways only You can. Give me patience and wisdom to raise my children in Your ways. Help me be an example of your perfect love, even when I’m pushed to the limits and don’t feel like I have all the answers.”
Hi, everybody. Pastor Chuck Allen here with episode three in the series that we started the other day entitled what Only God Can Do. I'm so glad you joined me for today's weekday podcast, because as we continue this concept of what only God can do, one of the things that I'm hearing from many of you is, Chuck, I don't think I've ever quite chosen to ask God to step so specifically into my life. That's what it's all about. As we've been discussing already, there's certain areas in our lives where, despite our best effort, we just can't manufacture the outcomes that are necessary in our life from all different parts of our life, physically, spiritually, emotionally. I mean, just all kind of ways. And there's places where only God's divine intervention can genuinely step into transformation in our life, the kind of transformation that most of us are desperately seeking today. I want to focus on two more important relationships that in many of our lives, they. They happen so often, we can take them for granted, and that's our marriages and our roles as parents. These relationships are incredibly rewarding, but they're profoundly challenging. And if we're honest, they really do reveal our deepest weaknesses and our greatest needs for God's intervention. Often the people we love the most see the worst of us. Often they see the most vulnerable part in the strangest and weakest part of our walk with God. So let's dive in and let's try to take a look about how God provides for our deepest needs in these crucial areas. Let's talk about marriage to begin with. I mean, first of all, all the teaching in the New Testament about marriage is a picture of Jesus being the groom and the church being the bride. Now, the church isn't always faithful. The church doesn't always live consistently, but Jesus is there to serve them. You know, when we think about our spouses, one of the first things we got to wrap our head around is how do we convey value, which is the way we consistently convey love so that we don't live in bitterness and resentment? How do we keep from defensiveness or proving we're right from becoming a way to show somebody that we love them? So when we think about this, let's recognize that what God can do for us is shape our marriage to reflect his love, to reflect Jesus, to reflect grace and mercy and honor. About how husbands can love their wives. And wives love their husbands even more so than they do themselves in their own bodies. I mean, when we look at that, remember what Paul wrote to the ephesians in chapter 5, verse 25, husbands love your wives. Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife, loves himself. That's what the scripture says. And by the way, this is mutual. This is, this is mutually accountability. This is mutual accountability in which we, we live and breathe and love and struggle in our lives with one another, with selflessness and honor. When you think about it, when's the last time you and your spouse had a significant disagreement? Maybe it was today, maybe it was yesterday. Maybe it was about finances or parenting or maybe about how you spend your times or how you act or react in those moments. Our natural instinct isn't usually selfless love. It's self protection, self justification, sometimes even self centeredness. That's where we need God to do what only he can do. Only God can transform our natural selfishness into Christlike selflessness. Only God can heal the wounds that create distance between spouses. Only God can sustain a lifetime of faithfulness and devotion when the feelings ebb and flow.
I remember counseling a couple not long ago who came into my office ready to file for divorce, literally saying, this is the last shot we're going to give it. Years of unresolved conflicts, growing resentment and emotional distance had brought them to what a lot of folks thought was just a point of no return, humanly speaking. Honestly, I sat there and thought, I bet this marriage is over. We began to pray together and we started talking about how we convey value. And now we grind it into our daily lives. And then we ground it into the love of Christ. And when these things happen, God steps in and does what only he can do. And over the following months, I literally was amazed at how God softened their hearts with one another. How he brought healing to some wounds that had been living there for years and rekindled a love and an admiration and got rid of assumptions. And all of a sudden, what had grown cold became deeply warm and passionate and loving. This is what God wants to do in your life, and this is what only God can do when we surrender our relationships to Him. You see, God doesn't just want to improve your marriage. He wants to transform it. He wants to use your Marriage as a living testimony Here's a couple of things that I just want to throw at you at a really tangible level. Just a couple of exercises. It's like the three minute connection. Here's how it works. Each day. Set aside three.
I can't even talk Uninterrupted minutes to connect with your spouse in the presence of God. Stand or sit facing each other. Hold hands. Take turns praying out loud for each other. It doesn't have to take long and it doesn't have to be God talk. Just talk. There's something that when we triangulate a loving spouse with another loving spouse, and then we get the power of God into it, we don't hang on to bitterness and resentment. It's really hard for followers of Jesus to lie to their spouse or not be honest about everything going on in the presence of God. It might feel awkward, which sounds horrible at first, but it can, especially if praying together isn't something you normally do. But I promise you, it's a powerful thing. I want to shift before we go to parenting to one other thing that I find powerful. Sit down and coordinate your calendars together. And in doing so, hold one another mutually accountable for your time and how you spend it, not just with others, but with each other. Now let's shift parenting. What God can do for all of us is help me love and teach and guide my kids and grandkids and his truth, modeling his growth, his grace as we grow in our home. Deuteronomy 6 gives us these instructions. These commandments that I give to you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children, talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down or when you get up. Parents, can I just say that this parenting journey is not for the faint of heart. I can't tell you how many sleepless nights that I've had, not just with newborns or teenagers, but with adult children. Parenting will bring us to the end of our wisdom, our patience, and our strength. And that's exactly where God steps in and does what only God can do. Only God can give you the wisdom to know when to discipline and when to extend grace. Only God can give you the patience to answer the same question for the thousandth time that week. Only God can protect your kids when they're beyond your sight and influence. The writer of Proverbs in chapter 22, verse 6 says, Train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he's old, he'll not depart from it. Now hear me. Some of my kids have departed from it, and most of them have come back. But have you noticed that the verse doesn't guarantee immediate results? The fruit of godly parenting often takes decades to fully manifest itself. That's why parenting is ultimately an exercise of faith. God is doing what only he can do in the hearts and lives of our kids. For parenting, I want to share a simple exercise just bedtime blessings. No matter how chaotic or how difficult the day has been, just take a moment at bedtime to place your hand on your child's head and their shoulder and speak a blessing over them. It might just sound something ancient, like number six. Lord bless you and keep you. Lord, keep his face and shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace. Or it might be, I love you and God loves you and I'm so thankful that you're my kid. It doesn't have to be hard, but as we approach Easter, I'm reminded that the heart of our faith is a God who specializes in bringing life from death, hope from despair, and beauty from ashes. The same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to bring new life into your marriage and into your parenting. Romans 8 says, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he he raised Jesus from the dead. He will also listen to this. He will also give life to mortal bodies like me and you, y'all, through His Spirit who dwells in you just like you.
That resurrection power, friend, doesn't just transform our eternal destiny, it transforms our daily life.
Let's pray. God, we come to youo today and we acknowledge that our marriages and our parenting, that journey, God, it's brutal, but we need your divine intervention. We've reached the end of our own wisdom, our strength and our resources. Could you just do what only you can do and transform our marriage so that it can reflect your love for us, Equip us to parent with grace and wisdom and faith. And as we practice these simple exercises of connection, God help us to be consistent with our spouse and with our kids and especially with you. We trust you with the outcomes, knowing that you love our kids and you love our spouses even more than we do. Thank you for hearing us. In Jesus name, Amen. I'm Pastor Chuck Allen and Pastor Bobby will be with you tomorrow as we continue to explore what Only God Can Do. Until then, make sure you visit our website that follows along with these 25 episodes of what Only God Can do at EasterInSugarHill.com and click on the resources to until then, may you experience God's transforming power in your relationship today. God bless you friend. Bye.
