A Prayer to Cultivate Long-Lasting Commitment in New MarriagesBy Lynette Kittle "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate" – Mark 10:7-9 Comedian and former "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno told Fox News about caring for his wife, Mavis, who has advanced dementia. "People say marriage is difficult. I don't get it. I enjoy her company. I enjoy taking care of her." Leno's statement is opposite to many who pass through the popular reality show "Married at First Sight." The show offers insight into the mindset of many singles, ones who say they want marriage, yet when given the opportunity, they come up short, unwilling to truly commit, sacrifice, and submit to one another. In the pre-marriage interviews, prospective brides and grooms often express how ready they are to be married and want a life-long, lasting commitment. However, all too soon into the marriage, it all starts to fall apart for most of the couples who were matched together sight unseen. Many may say it's because they didn't choose the person they married, but is it really? Looking at national statistics, those who choose their own spouse have similar failure rates. So, is it an authentic reason? Or is it something deeper within individuals unwilling to pay the high cost of committing to a lifelong marriage, whether their spouse came to them sight-seen or unseen? What's Behind the Struggle to Love?Anyone who is married knows the struggle is real. Enduring love in marriage seems harder to find and maintain in our world today. Jesus, in Matthew 24:12-13, cuts right to the issue of what is behind love that fails. "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved." Likewise, the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:1-4 points out, "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." Scripture Reveals Keys to Long-Lasting MarriagesAlthough it takes two in marriages to make it last, Scripture seems to most heavily address the husband's responsibility to love his wife. When a husband's love grows cold for his wife, the marriage is in dire trouble. Following are verses describing ways a husband can love his wife. Love her sacrificially. Ephesians 5:25 explains a husband's love for his wife as sacrificial in nature, like Christ's love for His Bride the Church. "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her." Love her like your own body. Ephesians 5:28 directs husbands to love their wives like they do their own bodies: "In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself." Love her like you love yourself. Ephesians 5:33 stresses how important it is for a husband to love his wife like himself. "However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." Love her in gentleness. Colossians 3:19 urges husbands to love their wives with gentleness. "Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them." Love her with plenty of TLC.1 Peter 3:7 encourages men to love their wives with tender loving care, along with noting the consequences of failing to do so. "Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers." Love Leaves No Room for ExcusesSadly, many wives make it very difficult for husbands to love them. Yet, a husband’s love for his wife is not dependent on her actions and attitudes but based on his relationship with God. A husband’s love for his wife is centered on his faith because the deeper his commitment to God, the more he is able to love his wife. 1 John 4:8 gives us no excuse for lack of love, confirming that "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." Let's pray:  Dear Father,Thank you for Jesus, who loves His Bride the Church and has given Himself up for her. Forgive us for ways we have let the wickedness in the world affect our hearts in ways we may not even recognize by turning our hearts away from You and letting our love grow cold towards You and each other. Soften our hearts to love you more so that we may love each other. Help us as couples to cultivate a long-lasting commitment in our marriages. Strengthen us with Your word so that we may love and respect each other as You have called us to do.In Jesus' name, amen.                Photo credit: ©GettyImages/Hiraman Lynette Kittle is married with four daughters. She enjoys writing about faith, marriage, parenting, relationships, and life. Her writing has been published by Focus on the Family, Decision, Today's Christian Woman, kirkcameron.com, Ungrind.org, StartMarriageRight.com, and more. She has a M.A. in Communication from Regent University and serves as associate producer for Soul Check TV. Related Resource: Remember God’s Enduring Love for You in this Guided Meditation on Psalm 100! This guided Christian meditation from Psalm 100 will help you experience and praise God for his unending love for you. Become aware of God's presence with you, and praise God for his loyal and enduring love from the beginning of time and into the future. Listen to every episode of the So Much More Podcast on LifeAudio.com, or subscribe on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode! Now that you’ve prayed, are you in need of someone to pray for YOU? Click the button below! Visit iBelieve.com for more inspiring prayer content. The post A Prayer to Cultivate Long-Lasting Commitment in New Marriages – Your Daily Prayer – July 30 appeared first on GodUpdates.

A Prayer to Cultivate Long-Lasting Commitment in New MarriagesBy Lynette Kittle "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate" – Mark 10:7-9 Comedian and former "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno told Fox News about caring for his wife, Mavis, who has advanced dementia. "People say marriage is difficult. I don't get it. I enjoy her company. I enjoy taking care of her." Leno's statement is opposite to many who pass through the popular reality show "Married at First Sight." The show offers insight into the mindset of many singles, ones who say they want marriage, yet when given the opportunity, they come up short, unwilling to truly commit, sacrifice, and submit to one another. In the pre-marriage interviews, prospective brides and grooms often express how ready they are to be married and want a life-long, lasting commitment. However, all too soon into the marriage, it all starts to fall apart for most of the couples who were matched together sight unseen. Many may say it's because they didn't choose the person they married, but is it really? Looking at national statistics, those who choose their own spouse have similar failure rates. So, is it an authentic reason? Or is it something deeper within individuals unwilling to pay the high cost of committing to a lifelong marriage, whether their spouse came to them sight-seen or unseen? What's Behind the Struggle to Love?Anyone who is married knows the struggle is real. Enduring love in marriage seems harder to find and maintain in our world today. Jesus, in Matthew 24:12-13, cuts right to the issue of what is behind love that fails. "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved." Likewise, the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:1-4 points out, "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God." Scripture Reveals Keys to Long-Lasting MarriagesAlthough it takes two in marriages to make it last, Scripture seems to most heavily address the husband's responsibility to love his wife. When a husband's love grows cold for his wife, the marriage is in dire trouble. Following are verses describing ways a husband can love his wife. Love her sacrificially. Ephesians 5:25 explains a husband's love for his wife as sacrificial in nature, like Christ's love for His Bride the Church. "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her." Love her like your own body. Ephesians 5:28 directs husbands to love their wives like they do their own bodies: "In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself." Love her like you love yourself. Ephesians 5:33 stresses how important it is for a husband to love his wife like himself. "However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." Love her in gentleness. Colossians 3:19 urges husbands to love their wives with gentleness. "Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them." Love her with plenty of TLC.1 Peter 3:7 encourages men to love their wives with tender loving care, along with noting the consequences of failing to do so. "Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers." Love Leaves No Room for ExcusesSadly, many wives make it very difficult for husbands to love them. Yet, a husband’s love for his wife is not dependent on her actions and attitudes but based on his relationship with God. A husband’s love for his wife is centered on his faith because the deeper his commitment to God, the more he is able to love his wife. 1 John 4:8 gives us no excuse for lack of love, confirming that "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." Let's pray:  Dear Father,Thank you for Jesus, who loves His Bride the Church and has given Himself up for her. Forgive us for ways we have let the wickedness in the world affect our hearts in ways we may not even recognize by turning our hearts away from You and letting our love grow cold towards You and each other. Soften our hearts to love you more so that we may love each other. Help us as couples to cultivate a long-lasting commitment in our marriages. Strengthen us with Your word so that we may love and respect each other as You have called us to do.In Jesus' name, amen.                Photo credit: ©GettyImages/Hiraman Lynette Kittle is married with four daughters. She enjoys writing about faith, marriage, parenting, relationships, and life. Her writing has been published by Focus on the Family, Decision, Today's Christian Woman, kirkcameron.com, Ungrind.org, StartMarriageRight.com, and more. She has a M.A. in Communication from Regent University and serves as associate producer for Soul Check TV. Related Resource: Remember God’s Enduring Love for You in this Guided Meditation on Psalm 100! This guided Christian meditation from Psalm 100 will help you experience and praise God for his unending love for you. Become aware of God's presence with you, and praise God for his loyal and enduring love from the beginning of time and into the future. Listen to every episode of the So Much More Podcast on LifeAudio.com, or subscribe on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode! Now that you’ve prayed, are you in need of someone to pray for YOU? Click the button below! Visit iBelieve.com for more inspiring prayer content. The post A Prayer to Cultivate Long-Lasting Commitment in New Marriages – Your Daily Prayer – July 30 appeared first on GodUpdates.

July 30, 2024 Trusting an Unknown Future to a Known GodSARAH MCCLELLAND, COMPEL Pro Member Lee en español "But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does. For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind." Job 23:13-14 (ESV) Not long into our dinner conversation, my husband dropped a bad-news bomb. While he tried to deliver it delicately, bad news still has a way of cutting deep, no matter what package it's in. Especially when it's unexpected. I set down my fork, trying to digest his words. I didn't understand. How could his nondeployable position suddenly become deployable? My thoughts immediately wandered through worst-case scenarios: What if he misses our baby's birth? Who will take me to the hospital when the baby comes? What if something terrible happens to him while he's gone? Will I have to raise our child alone? When faced with an unknown future, I often resort to thinking through the "what-ifs." Rather than trusting that God will be with me in everything, I wonder how I'll manage the situation on my own. I forget God is behind the scenes, working out each scenario for my good. If anyone in the Bible knew about bad news, it was Job. In a single day, messengers brought him word that all his children had perished, his livestock was stolen, and his servants were brutally slaughtered by bandits. Talk about having to rethink the future! But Job didn't respond the way we might expect. In the moments after he received this news, we don't see his mind spiral into "what-ifs." He didn't immediately question God or worry about what else might happen. Instead, he worshipped God, declaring that though the Lord gives and takes away, He is still worthy of praise (Job 1:20-21). Despite Job's sorrow and grief at his monumental loss, he put God in His rightful place. Job later admitted to his friends that he didn't understand God's ways. But even after loathsome sores appeared all over his body, he refused to point a festering finger and "charge God with wrong" (Job 1:22, ESV). In the middle of Job's messy story, we find today's key verses: "But [God] is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does. For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind" (Job 23:13-14). Job declared he was confident of these two things: God hadn't changed. Whatever God appointed for Job would happen. Job's future and purpose were secure in God's hands and would not be shaken. This was a bold declaration of who God is, and it revealed Job's certainty of God’s work even though he didn't know the reason for his circumstances. Friend, no matter what news we hear at the dinner table, doctor's office or work desk, may we have this same confidence in our unchanging God. His ways are often beyond understanding, but His faithfulness endures to every generation. He will accomplish the good plans He has for us as we trust our future to Him. Lord, I so quickly forget You're working behind the scenes in my life. Thank You for actively turning each situation for my good. Help me to trust You even when I cannot see Your hands at work. In Jesus' Name, Amen. OUR FAVORITE THINGS For a limited time ... You can join COMPEL Pro! COMPEL Pro is basically the writing coach you've been looking for combined with the community and support your heart has been needing. With access to industry professionals, bestselling authors, Proverbs 31 Ministries staff experts, and more, you'll learn all the best practices, tips and tricks. We'll remove the mystery and help you stop guessing what will make you a successful writer and teacher. Don't miss this chance to join while registration is open! ENGAGE Today's devotion writer, Sarah McClelland, is a member of COMPEL Pro. Receive writing tips on your social media feeds when you follow COMPEL Pro on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! For countless free articles on the writing life, check out the COMPEL Pro Blog! FOR DEEPER STUDY Psalm 138:8, "The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands" (ESV). Romans 8:28, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (ESV). In which area(s) of your life are you struggling to trust God? How does knowing that God is faithful and working out all situations for your good help you trust Him with your future? We'd love to hear from you! Share your thoughts in the comments. © 2024 by Sarah McClelland. All rights reserved. Proverbs 31 MinistriesP.O. Box 3189 Matthews, NC 28106 www.Proverbs31.org The post Trusting an Unknown Future to a Known God – Encouragement for Today – July 30, 2024 appeared first on GodUpdates.

1601 - Spanish garrison of Rhine birch surrenders to Earl Mauritius 1878 - German anti-semitism begins during the Reichstag election 1902 - Anti-Jewish rioters attack funeral procession of Rabbi Joseph (NYC) 1928 - George Eastman shows first amateur color motion pictures to guests at his New York house including Thomas Edison 1932 - X Summer Olympic Games open in Los Angeles, California 1945 - After delivering the atomic bomb across the Pacific, cruiser USS Indianapolis is torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine I-58. 880 of the crew die, many after being attacked by sharks, inspiring the movie Jaws 1954 - 5th British Empire Games and Commonwealth Games open in Vancouver, Canada 1966 - Beatles' "Yesterday... and Today" album goes #1 and stays #1 for 5 weeks 1983 - Official speed record for a piston-driven aircraft, 832 kph, California 1984 - Soap Opera "Santa Barbara" premieres on NBC TV More Historical Events »

Historical Events 1946 - 1st rocket attains 100 mi (167 km) altitude, White Sands, New Mexico 1955 - 42nd Tour de France: French cyclist Louison Bobet claims last of his 3 straight general classification victories 1971 - US Apollo 15 (Scott and Irwin) lands on Mare Imbrium on the Moon 1984 - Alvenus tanker at Cameron Louisiana, spills 2.8 million gallons of oil 1988 - Harry Drake shoots arrow record 1873m 2017 - Russian President Vladimir Putin announces American diplomats in Russia cut by 755 in response to American sanctions More Historical Events » Famous Birthdays 1875 - James W. Tate, English composer, born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England (d. 1922) 1931 - Joan Vohs, American model and actress (Fort Ti, Vice Squad, Sabrina), born in St Albans, New York (d. 2001) 1964 - Alek Keshishian, Lebanese-American film director (Madonna: Truth or Dare), born in Beirut, Lebanon 1970 - Joe Montford, American CFL linebacker (Hamilton Tiger Cats), born in Beaufort, North Carolina 1973 - Sonu Nigam, Indian playback singer, born in Haryana, India 1981 - Nicky Hayden, American motorcycle racer (MotoGP Champion 2006), born in Owensboro, Kentucky (d. 2017) More Famous Birthdays » Famous Deaths 1889 - Charles Absolom, English cricketer (Test for England), dies in a port accident at 43 1957 - Sem Dresden, Dutch composer and conductor, dies at 76 1979 - Beppie Nooij, Dutch actress and director (Red Sien, Zeemansvrouwen), dies at 60 1995 - Harry Shorto, British philologist and linguist (A Dictionary of the Mon Inscriptions), dies at 75 2005 - (Eli) "Lucky" Thompson, American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist (Stan Kenton - Cuban Fire!; Milt Jackson; Miles Davis - Walkin'), dies of Alzheimer's disease at 81 2007 - Ingmar Bergman, Swedish stage and film director (Cries and Whispers), dies at 89 More Famous Deaths »

With Soundgarden, Audioslave, Temple Of The Dog and solo, Chris Cornell proved to be a vocalist of singular talent. Here we round up his best albums

As we let God’s peace wash over us during nature breaks, we can notice God’s presence more clearly, free from distractions.