Hope for Damaged Marriages
Psalm 107:10-16, 33-35
Paul J. Bucknell
The Purpose:
To break the impasse that couples face due to the piling up of 'communication' problems.
The Method:
Renewal comes only when people expose themselves and their marriages to God's scriptural principles. By encouraging the couple with the reality of God’s promises in a few minor areas, hope and confidence develops in God's Word for more serious problems.
The Premises:
- Most, if not all 'communication problems', are rooted in sins. We can cover them up and pretend they are not sins, but the scriptures speak otherwise. If something is able to damage a relationship, then at some point self–oriented attitudes have replaced a loving attitude. Psalm 107:10-11, 34 testify that a broken marriage is evidence of unconfessed and unrepentant sin.
- A person is not aware of or easily able to see their own sins and so does not naturally seek reconciliation. This meeting with the couple helps bring men and women to where they need to be. Jesus said this in John 3:19-21,
And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.
- When people start acknowledging their own sins before God and each other, God’s Spirit begins to refresh and help His people. Suddenly, God’s great goodness is seen through His forgiveness and further hope for improvement through restoration is gained. (2 Chronicles 6:26-27, whole chapter).
The Steps #1-10