Speaker: Ben Sigman
Theme: What I Said Yes To
Weekend Music links on iTunes: Let the Praises Ring - Lincoln Brewster, Run - Hillsong - Jesus Culture, Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin, How He Loves - David Crowder
Read: Ephesians 5:25-27; Luke 6:45
Think: Pastor Ben talked about the marriage myth that “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence”. He also mentioned “the grass is always greener where you water it”. The Bible supports the latter statement in Ephesians 5:25-27. This clear instruction to husbands applies to all our relationships. Christ “cleanses” us with the washing of the water of the word. What a great visual image. This washing is held up as a model for us but, we can also imagine the opposite of that image which is to “soil” or “dirty” with the washing of the mud or slime of our words.
My wife has a friend who acknowledges that this same advice saved her marriage. They spent a lot of time together and my wife only ever heard her degrade and disrespect her husband during their time. She was very unhappy and was starting to look for ways out of her marriage. My wife suggested that she try only saying good things about her husband for a month and reassess her position then. Her friend tried this and the result was life changing. That was at over ten years ago and they are still happily married.
Proverbs 18:21 talks about spoken words having the power of life and death. In our marriages and all our relationships we need to be aware of the image of the effect of our “watering”. Are our words causing our grass to live or die?
Do: Imagine the face of someone who you have few good words for (hopefully not your spouse but if it is this will be great for your marriage). Commit to say only good things about them this week.
Pray: Lord, I want to bring life to others and to myself. I acknowledge that I have a choice to cleanse or soil everyone I speak to. Help me to be aware of which I’m doing and change my heart so that as Luke 6:45 says I can speak life.
The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.
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