Lent 2025 – Lighting a Fire of Commitment – Prayers for Marriage and Divorce Purity 1612

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I am M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. Today's photo of a bar, uh, of a white coral fence and a white barn standing out in the darkness as the sky is painted with the purple and pink hues of twilight type comes to us from an unknown Facebook friend who shared this magic moment on social media on July 29th, 2021. This memory is yours. Let us know and we will photo credit you on the blog after the fact. Well, it's Friday, and thank God. And as we begin the last day of the work week, I am resting on the Lord's mercy and grace as my aspirations to fast for Lent this past week didn't go as planned. The feast days of Saint Patrick and Saint Joseph this week gave me a break from fasting, but sort of destroyed my momentum, rhythm, or motivation for fasting. And I am accepting that although I thought my spirit was willing, willing, my flesh has been weak. And I hope to do some soul searching this weekend to light my spiritual fire for Lent once again. Speaking of seeking to get back that repentance feeling, Dr. Charles Stanley's In Touch devotion for today touches on that topic, so I'm sharing it this morning to help motivate those of us who have grown cold in our devotion to follow the Lord in earnest. And Dr. Charles Stanley writes, since even— well, lighting that— lighting the fire again. Since even good things can be a distraction, choose to prioritize your relationship with God. Let's continue looking at the Lord's warning to the church at Ephesus. The Lord— the Ephesians' fervor is gone, though they they're still going through the motions of serving God and even defending the faith. Christ's warning to them extends to us too. He looks at distracted and complacent Christians who are laboring for every reason but the right one, and he cries out, I don't want your empty service. I want you. Our heart can gradually cool when we give higher priority to other relationships and activities than to the Lord, making them idols in our life. The truth is, anything that distracts from God qualifies as an idol. Returning to a life of passionate service for God begins with repentance. We must assume responsibility for drifting away. Then we're to put Jesus Christ back on the throne of our heart and reconnect with him through meditation on scripture and regular prayer. God desires an intimate relationship with every believer. Are you excited about Jesus? Our best and purest devotion will be to whatever or whomever we prioritize above all else. If that is not Jesus, repent and ask him to rekindle the flame. That was from Dr. Charles Stanley. I say amen. In our daily lives, we can get distracted, can be distracted and drawn away from the most important relationship that we have. Our relationship with God. So let's try to find some quiet time alone with the Lord this weekend to commit ourselves to following him through, through, throughout this season of Lent. Speaking of Lent and our relationships, our second most important relationship would be the relationship with our spouses. While there could be some debate over the hierarchy of our priorities in the Christian life, I believe they are from top to bottom: God, and then family, with our spouse over and above our kids and other family members, then church and ministry, then work, and then other— our other interest activities or hobbies. Unfortunately, we don't always put our spouses first after God, and we can grow cold in our devotion to them, and conflicts between us can even tear us apart. As a person who has suffered the loss of a spouse to divorce, I know how important maintaining a marriage is and how devastating it can be to go through a divorce. So in the spirit of prayerful repentance, I'm sharing the marriage and divorce prayers from the Steps to Freedom in Christ as JPEGs on the blog today. I was in a rush, um, to give you a way to pray for your marriage, to heal from divorce, or in my case, both. And Dr. Neil Anderson writes the prayer for marriage: Dear Heavenly Father, I choose to believe that you created us male and female and that marriage is a spiritual bond between one man and one woman who become one in Christ. I believe that bond can only be broken by death, adultery, or desertion by an unbelieving spouse. I choose to stay committed to my vows and to remain faithful to my spouse until physical death separates us. Give me the grace to be the spouse you created me to be and enable me to love and respect my partner in marriage. I will seek to change only myself and accept my spouse as you have accepted me. Teach me how to speak the truth in love, to be merciful as you have been merciful to me. And to forgive as you have forgiven me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Then there's the prayer for divorce. Dear Heavenly Father, I have not been the spouse you created me to be, and I deeply regret that my marriage has failed. I choose to believe that you still love and accept me. I choose to believe that I am still your child, that your desire for me is to continue serving you and others in your kingdom. Give me the grace to overcome the disappointment and the emotional scars that I carry, and I ask the same for my ex-spouse. I choose to forgive him or her, and I choose to— well, I choose to forgive her, and I choose to forgive myself for all the ways I contributed to the divorce. Enable me to learn from my mistakes and guide me so that I don't repeat the same old flash patterns. I choose to believe the truth that I am still accepted, secure, and significant in Christ. Please guide me to healthy relationships in your church and keep me from seeking a marriage on the rebound. I trust you to supply all my needs in the future, and I commit myself to follow you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. During the season of Lent, we want to be sure to draw close to God. But we should also consider our other relationships and how we represent God's kingdom in them. I hope these prayers for marriage and divorce will bless you in this season of Lent, and to recommit yourself to your marriage or to heal from your, from your divorce. And if you'd like the marriage or divorce prayers, there are links basically on the blog today for each one of them. You can download a JPEG of those for free. And that brings us along to today's Bible verses, uh, which are brought to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on loving and serving others, and today's verses are Matthew 5:43-48 in the NIV, where the word of the Lord says, you have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just— on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are you not— are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Today's verses are the first of two passages of scripture that fall under the 20th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on loving and serving others. And that 20th point is: Love your enemies and those who persecute you. Today's Bible verses are some of the most challenging instructions that Jesus gave his disciples. Jesus raises the bar on our commitment to do good and to love others as he loves us by commanding that we are to love our enemies and to pray for those who those who persecute us. We might find this to seem impossible, but as Jesus's apprentices, we need to realize that our teacher is only telling us to follow his example. Not only did Jesus forgive and pray for those who crucified him— yep, those would be his enemies for sure— but he also went out of his way, came to earth as a man, and died an atoning death for us. To help us to grasp the concept of loving our enemies, we should never forget how we were enemies of God before coming to faith in Jesus Christ. I was a big rebel, a big sinner, and in many ways was desperately wicked. I was guilty of many sins, was an active blasphemer and follower of a false religion when Jesus came into my life. I doubt I was God's public enemy number one, but I was definitely one of his enemies too. Uh, If God could love me, save me, and give me hope, purpose, and a future, who am I to judge someone else and withhold my love given to me by God from them? So remember how you were an enemy of God to motivate you to forgive your enemy and to show them love where possible, where possible, and to pray that they could be blessed and find Jesus too. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Day by Day Along the Way by J.E. Adams. It's a 365-day devotional, and we're on day 111, uh, where Adams shares a portion of 1 Thessalonians 5:12, which says Recognize those who labor among you and manage you in the Lord. And J.E. Adams writes, it's easy to criticize the pastor and elders of your church. They are in a position of authority and eminence, but consider, they labor at the task of ruling or managing your congregation. That is not an easy task. Paul's choice of the strong word labor emphasizes that. This fact can be easily forgotten So Paul urges members of the church to think quite highly of them because of their work. When they do their work conscientiously, it is nothing less than labor, much of which is done behind the scenes so that it cannot be readily appreciated. They deserve recognition. The eldership is in itself difficult because the task often involves dealing with difficult people. Add to that the work of teaching and preaching, the additional task of a pastor who also rules, and who have strenuous work. Pray for those who labor among you. They bear a heavy burden and need your prayers. By the way, when is the last time you expressed appreciation to any of the elders of your church for their efforts? Yikes. And yeah, we should definitely express our appreciation to the elders of our church because especially in today's society, there are so few faithful people of God in general. And the pastors and elders of your church who lead, um, you know, have taken on a big task and are under a lot of opposition. And criticism. So pray for them and bless them where you can. You know, they've decided to stand up for the kingdom of God, and we should stand up behind them to support them and their work. So, you know, express your appreciation to your pastor. And so I would say thank you, Pastor Roscoe Lilly, for everything you do at Starpoint Church, and we appreciate the opportunity you've given us to serve there. Thank you. And that moves us along to the end where we always ask the question, have you fully surrendered to God? We ask that question because it leads you to, you know, consider how much— how's your fire burning for the Lord? Is it burning at all? We hope it is. My commitment has wavered a bit, but I'm still still going at it. And just, you know, I'm not perfect as my Heavenly Father is perfect, unfortunately, all the time. Hardly ever. Um, but I have learned enough to experience the peace and joy of the Lord in my life on a continual basis. And that's why we share this message every day, to let you know that a life of faith in Christ is possible, and, and it has many benefits. It's called the fruit of the Spirit. So we encourage you to do that because, you know, Um, it gives you peace, love, and joy, goodness, kindness, patience, you know, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Um, so, and it gives you a purpose. And part of my purpose, as I sort of alluded to, is, uh, I serve at Starpoint Church as the leader of the Celebrate Freedom support group, uh, which meets on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM. Uh, we invite anybody in the Capital District of New York who can get to Clifton Park on a Wednesday night to come out and join us, uh, for a Christian recovery and discipleship support group. If you're not in Upstate New York, that's okay. Currently, we're offering a YouTube series called Christian Recovery: Celebrate Freedom with M.t. Clark, and that is on our YouTube channel, M.t. for Christ 247, and it's also on mtforchrist.com. You can find the links on our web page, basically, that has all our playlists listed. Beyond that, we've done other teachings in the past on the podcast that you can check out, from Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, Freedom in Christ, or Celebrate Freedom Discipleship Course. They're all available, and we believe that they can help you find or increase your freedom in Christ. So if you'd like, you know, sign— you don't have to even sign up, go online and find them and watch or listen to them today. Beyond that, the next thing, the next purpose is I'm leading the Grace Course online. It's a book study and video study by Steve Goss from Freedom in Christ Ministries, and it's not too late to sign up, but time is running out basically. So if you'd like to reserve your spot, you can go to m.tforchrist.com, our group coaching events page, and register today. Beyond that, um, if you appreciate what we're trying to do here at the Empty for Christ Community Freedom Ministry and want to support us, we certainly, uh, appreciate your donations. So you can go to emptyforchrist.com, our donations page, to give today. Beyond that, we always end by asking the same question twice, basically by asking, are you empty for Christ too? What does that mean? It just means you're Emptying yourself of the things of this world, the things that don't matter, and trying to make space for the Holy Spirit to come into your life and to guide and move you, move in and through you to do what's good, to do what's right, and to discover the life, the abundant life that the Lord has for you. And if you're experiencing that too, we say great, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we encourage you to pray, pray to the Lord to reveal himself to you, and pray to make Jesus your Lord and Savior. Um, we know that, uh, if you seek the Lord, you'll find him. We believe he'll answer those prayers. Um, and that's why we pray every day, like right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, thank God it's Friday. Uh, the work week can be long and tedious, but you got us to the end of it. And Lord, we just pray for you to go before us today because the day's not over yet. And we need your help. You should open our eyes to the things you want us to see, lead us in the way we should go, and help us the best represent your kingdom today in everything we do. Lord, we also pray for anyone reading, watching, or listening to this message today, that they'd be blessed, that you'd come alongside them, their prayer request, their walk of faith, and help them too, Lord. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.