I read an article today and had a conversation with a neighbor who was distraught today that has moved my heart to share these thoughts with you all today in the love of Jesus with nobody in mind, but moved by the Spirit to share these things for however the Lord might work thru these stories.
Looking upward keeps from being downcast!!! Oh that is the delightful place to be in life for sure!!! King David got it when he wrote:
“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.”
Psalm 42:5
When you put your hope in God and have a mindset of bringing about His goals in life, it outshines the agenda of the world and the flesh!!! That’s a good thing!!! As an individual and as a family, this makes a difference because our Father’s provision is based upon His will, His plan and His purpose for us and He promises to meet all our needs for those plans. Needs are different from our wants. It is good to identify why we want. Is it for divine reasons or for the flesh or the world??? In a family, it is important to have divine “family” goals.
I know of a woman who desired to have family goals that took into consideration the whole families’ best interest and the Lord’s work, however, her husband would very rarely discuss it with her and didn’t share a plan of his own other than to just keep making money and spend as little as possible. He most often considered her ideas as insignificant and without any merit and always had reasons why they couldn’t do things that she dreamed of, like spending some extra to fix some things on their home, go and celebrate their milestone years of marriage together, inviting people over for dinner, going out on a date, doing things to help other people or putting out money to travel to see their kids. Yet he had one of the biggest men’s toy boxes that cost more than their house, always justifying purchases as investments, but not willing to invest in his relationships or God’s kingdom purposes. He wasn’t open to getting counseling to work thru their differences. Hence, it didn’t take long for the woman to realize the unfairness and selfishness of the man and his heart that cared less about her heart or the heart of others – only what he could get from her as a wife. If she didn’t provide what he wanted when he wanted, she was in trouble and he pouted and blamed her that drove her farther away. She began to lose love and respect for him and quit caring about his desires because he cared not for her heart. This isn’t to say a human heart is always focused on what is divine, but if it is, it should be listened to.
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I know of a woman who lived in her dreams of having artistic perfection in all that she did to the point that she put things and accomplishments that were worldly above her relationships and God’s kingdom purposes. It didn’t matter the family budget, she had to have the new outfit or decor for the house, the latest this or that. She spent the family into debt, causing the husband to work more and more hours to pay her overspending habit so she could stay home and raise their children. He became too tired to do the things she wanted him to do when he was home because of the hours spent trying to earn her a big enough paycheck while she stayed at home and dreamed about how to improve the looks of her house and the family appearance. Dinner was her job as a stay at home mom and it wasn’t done on time often because of her focus on her own self-interest dreaming. Finally, she went to work to have enough money to satisfy her worldly desires and with the weight of that time spent on top of all the other important things she needed to do but didn’t get done, but was trying to do – at the end of the day, she was too tired to give her husband any energy to love him – she had spent it all on things that were put before he. Her husband felt cheated and abandoned and became frustrated in not being able to reach his wife’s ways of thinking to change her mind in any way from what her heart was set on as most important in life. This story isn’t to say that women who work are always working because of a worldly mindset, as there are lots of heavenly reasons why a woman does work. Sometimes a man stays at home and works for the team effort while a woman works outside the home. The important thing is to keep good balance between the time commitments the spouses make to each other and their family and that they have divine goals together for how they spend their money so both feel good about it and cared for. This is why it is not good to be unequally yoked, but to be yoked together with Christ as the center of our lives!!! He said “I am the way, the truth and the life.” John 14:6
Oh these are some hard stories to hear, but I share these examples here with ya’s because we have an enemy named Satan and he is always tempting people. The enemy creeps into lives in subtle ways, dear ones and it all starts when the wants of hearts become different from what Jesus wants – his wants and her wants instead of God wants. He has the best plan always and when couples are open to His heart for their divine lives together, it makes a huge difference in their relationship. I know not how our Father might speak to your hearts thru this, but I rest it with Him with ya’s!!! Oh when two people are open to Godly counsel because our Father so often works thru an outside look into circumstances to reveal the answers to bring the healing, correction and victory into marriage, divine relationships happen. Our hope is always in Jesus as this song says here. Why be downcast when there are answers for victory by looking up. WOOOHOOO!!! How is Father moving your heart to think heavenly in your relationship – what do you need to give and claim for Jesus??? It is good to ponder these things and reach for the divine in relationships because it brings the divine life and oh the divine life is the best life that just makes ya smile!!! There is a reason for the light of heaven shining into our lives on earth – it is for our divine well being and one of the biggest competitors against our Father is money and what it will buy!!! Money and stress over money is one of the biggest problems in relationships. This is something important to talk about. What are the best choices for money in your life and if married, in your marriage relationship??? Get solutions to the problems before money destroys love and families.
🙂 Oh the sweet heavenly life just makes us smile forever!!! I like this song here about “keeping fighting the good fight” 
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