Satan continually works against marriages. And one thing within marriages that Satan works hard to try and prevent is a husband and his wife having devotional times with God TOGETHER.I meet weekly for accountability with a friend named Michael. Michael is married, as am I, and we've recently been talking about how hard it is to sit down regularly with our wives and spend time in prayer and in reading Scripture. We feel something tugging on our hearts and minds trying to tell us... you can do it later, or there's something more fun you could be doing, or here is something you need to argue with your spouse about.
I firmly believe these are lies from Satan who is actively working to prevent married couples from having these devotional times together.
Michael and I often speak of the fact that we both feel because it is so hard and because our hearts are so often unwilling and because so many things try to distract us, this probably means it is something infinitely beneficial for our marriages that Satan wants desperately to stop.
Furthermore we both see, and have heard from other husbands, that once we actually sit down with our wives to have this time there are so many "innocent" things that keep our minds away from God and his Word. Sometimes it's something our pet is doing. Sometimes it's a conversation that seems to turn so quickly and easily into a confrontation. Sometimes it's just a thought about our day that distracts us from talking about the things of God in front of us.
As I said to Michael last night... it's never a Satan worshipper calling up for donations to the church of Satan. It's things that seem very "innocent" or "neutral." This is why I believe so strongly that it is indeed Satan himself.
Satan works very hard to prevent these precious times between married couples and once we actually sit down to do it, Satan then scrambles desperately to distract us.
Let me encourage and challenge all married couples to begin to pray against Satan in this area of your lives. Focus extra-hard on sitting down with your spouse to have these important devotional times together. HUSBANDS: be strong for your wives and stand firm to resist Satan when he tempts you both to skip these times or to get distracted.
I'll end with a story from a sermon that hit me especially hard the other day. Our preacher was reading the story of a flight attendant who walked up to a woman on a plane to serve her the in-flight meal. The woman refused the meal and said she was fasting. The flight attendant asked why she was fasting and the woman replied that she was with the Church of Satan and as a group they all fasted every Friday and prayed to Satan to destroy the marriages of Christian couples.
Don't let this strike fear in your heart. Let it increase your resolve to defeat Satan daily by the power of God's spirit within you.
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