Charlyne Cares Daily Devotional - Helping Stop Divorce God's Way

 Each Tuesday Bob shares his thoughts on marriage restoration and the prodigal life, 22 years after divorce and then remarriage, to Charlyne.

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The Songs of Standing

"The LORD answered Moses, 'Is the LORD's arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you.'" Numbers 11:23

This past week the sportscasters have called South Florida the center of football in America, as our area hosted bowl games, an NFL playoff game, college football games and more. It is evident from our traffic and the many out-of-state license plates that something is happening down our way.

Have you ever seen the time before a televised football game, during the singing of The National Anthem, when the singer's lip movements do not match what you are hearing? Someone is lip- syncing, going through the motions of singing while the audience is actually hearing a recorded message.

Some of the people we know and love best, the ones we call standers, attempt to lip-sync their stand for a healed marriage, restored by our Lord God. Even though they could learn to sing the songs of standing, these folk prefer to go through all the motions, sounding like other standers, but the words are what they have heard or read and are not coming from their heart.

Every stander falls into one of two groups. Either they are sincere standers, striving to live the way that Jesus lived, or they are synthetic standers, singing about standing, but without the changes in their life that a stand for their marriage and a walk with Jesus Christ demands.

Each day, Rejoice Marriage Ministries receives hundreds of email. Most of these incorporate a prayer request. The requests that touch us the most are the ones being sung with a broken heart. They say, in simple words, "Please pray for me. I am having a tough time right now." Most go on to briefly outline their circumstances. Yes, we pray for these people, but we do not worry about them. Their words and their request for prayer, demonstrates they are sincerely singing the song of standing and that they are looking to Jesus alone to meet their needs.

"And when many disasters and difficulties come upon them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants. I know what they are disposed to do, even before I bring them into the land I promised them on oath." Deuteronomy 31:21

We also receive email from synthetic standers. This group usually start their email by lip-syncing some pious religious phrase, repeated from somewhere else. Their message sounds more like something from the Old Testament than a request from a hurting individual. It may contain all the buzz words of standing, but it does not demonstrate the heart of a hurting stander, but who is not depending 100% on God. Intertwined somewhere in the email, the synthetic stander relates how they are taking things into their own hands, either by actions or by imposing time limits or restrictions on their God.

"...but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you. But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward." Jeremiah 7:23-24

Synthetic standers seldom say, "Please pray for me. I am having a tough time right now." Instead, they want to convince others of how religious they are, and how well they are doing.

Synthetic standers have a front to uphold; they cannot confess to being human and of having bad days. They may ask for prayer for some concocted scheme or deadline they have devised to manipulate a prodigal spouse back home, or back into line. Their schemes usually backfire, and they stop standing, blaming the failure on God, when in fact God had very little to do with their plans.

The band of circumstance will strike up some day for every man or woman who calls themselves a stander. It may be the song of a non-covenant marriage, the birth of an Ishmael-child, loss of a job, child problems, death of a family member or serious health issues. When that happens, will you be singing out the name of Jesus or only lip-syncing the words of someone else that you have heard?

Here’s the bottom line; Today we know many sincere standers, who would rather die themselves than give up on their spouse and allow them to go into eternity without Christ. We would expect to hear "I quit" from them about the same time as the earth stopped spinning. This group is not result orientated, but rather goal orientated. They do not need to see immediate results in either their own marriage, nor in the marriage of others for them to continue to stand strong with God.

We could send out a Saturday Testimonies edition of "Charlyne Cares," with the comment "Nothing happened this week," and the sincere stander would reply, "It will be better next week." Nothing can dampen their God-given quest for a healed and restored marriage.

Let’s look at the synthetic standers. If they hear that God had someone stand for years before He brought their spouse home, or if their spouse utters discouragement to them, or if everything does not go the way they have planned, when the circumstance band strikes up a song they dislike, they are ready to exit the stage of standing faster than an embarrassed lip-syncing singer.

If you are a synthetic stander today, take heart because your Lord God has a new song of standing ready for you. He wants you to turn off the man-made sound tracts and to start doing things His way this very day. He will never allow you to be embarrassed over being a sincere stander when you are singing for Him.

We prodigals may be deceived, but we can spot a synthetic stander a mile away. Since the day I came home over 20 years ago and right up to this day, my wife’s walk has always matched her talk. Prodigals come home to sincere standers, and we run from synthetic standers.

Regardless of what song the band is playing today, may you join those who are singing a sincere song of standing.

"He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD." Psalm 40:2-3

Let's listen to His song,
Bob Steinkamp
Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.
Post Office Box 10548
Pompano Beach, FL 33061 USA
Ministry Web Site - http://rejoiceministries.org  
Bookstore - http://rejoiceministries.org/r.php?num=tizwl  
Stop Divorce Radio- http://rejoiceministries.org/r.php?num=2bg1e  

Devotional Copyright© 2009 Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.

Scripture quoted by permission and are from the Holy Bible; New International Version® Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.