A Marriage That Was In Trouble

A MARRIAGE THAT WAS IN TROUBLE

            Tonight we are going to be exploring how we can help marriages that are in trouble.  For our devotion I chose a Bible couple that had several struggles in their marriage, but they navigated through them.

            The couple?  Abraham & Sarah.  Think for a moment of the stressors on their marriage. 

1. They made a significant move away from their home…to a foreign land, culture and language.  He has the privilege of getting to tell the residents of this land that God has given their property to him.  That’s not easy for either of them, but especially for the wife.
2. In their traveling they came upon dangerous caravans that threatened them, and TWICE Abraham asked Sarah to lie about her identity so as to protect his own neck.  Abraham lost a notch or two on the integrity ladder with Sarah.  But she stuck at his side.
3. In dividing up the land, one of his nephews chose to live in a valley that was lush and green, but was full of corruption.  Abraham had to rescue him and his family before God toasted the town.
4. They navigated their way through a hundred years of a barren womb and no heirs.  As a frustrated wife, Sarah devises a not-so-wise diversion through her handmaid.  They experienced being parents at an age when grandchildren should be taking care of them.
5. Finally they have a child through Sarah and they have to push the handmaid and her son out of the nest into the wilderness.
6. Abraham leaves on a secretive trip to the mountains to worship God and has to bear the burden alone of what is going to happen to his son on that mountain.  There’s no indication that he told Sarah what they were going to do prior to leaving. 
7. All the years of their lives they wandered in tents in a land God promised them, but they never got to fully realize it in their own lifetime.
8. They were given a promise by God about a nation through their seed that they never got to realize prior to their demise.

There are not many marriages that have had to face such difficult stressors.  But they did.  They hung in there God used them in huge ways that leave their mark even today. 

If we went around this room and heard the story of each of us, we too could write a book of our journeys.  Thank you for hanging in there through your own stressors.  Thank you for the love and commitment that that represents.  Thank you for being willing to help others whose marriages are in a crisis.

Pray.