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Soaking in God’s Word Together - Crosswalk Couples Devotional - December 26
Soaking in God’s Word Together
By: Vivian Bricker
"For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21).
As a married couple, finding time to spend with God can sometimes be hard. Both as an individual Christian and a married Christian, it can be challenging to spend time with God on a personal level. If you have found this to be true in your marriage, don't be afraid or feel ashamed. This happens to many married couples due to the stressors, worries, and constant tasks of the world.
However, we cannot sit idle and do nothing about it. Instead, we need to make the change today.
The change we should make is to spend more time with God in prayer, Bible study, and worship. You can do this privately as an individual Christian, but you can also do this with your spouse. Praying, Bible reading, and worship are all beautiful things we can do with our spouse.
It can help build up our faith and our spouse's faith. Moreover, it helps both the husband and the wife cultivate their relationship with God. Even though this will take planning, taking time out of your day for God is important. God is our Creator, and He deserves all of our time. When schedules are tight, we need to learn to be flexible and always include God in our days.
Our days will suffer when we don't include God in them. Neglecting our time with God will cause us to struggle in our walk with Him and make us more prone to the attacks of the devil. As believers, if we are going to be strong in the Lord, we have to include Him in our lives. God is not just "a nice addition" to our life. He is the One who loves us more than anyone else and will welcome us to Heaven when we pass away.
Therefore, we must ensure we spend time with Him daily. Think about how you and your spouse will start including Him in your life this week. Maybe mornings will work best, or evenings will be better. Depending on your work schedules, try to make time for God each day. You will not regret it.
You and your spouse will notice that the more you soak in God's Word and spend time with Him, the more joyful you will feel. Problems won't feel as monumental anymore because you know God is with you. By involving God in your life through prayer and active Bible reading, you and your spouse will also learn how to work through problems biblically.
Rather than getting angry and hateful toward each other, you will learn forgiveness (Ephesians 4:32). Through forgiveness and reconciliation with your spouse, your marriage will become stronger. God's Word has the power to change our lives and our marriages, but this cannot happen if we are not actively reading it every day. Try to read the Bible with your spouse each day for a month and see how it changes your marriage, your life, and your walk with the Lord.
After you have spent this first month with the Lord, you and your spouse will continue to crave time with Jesus. No longer will a day pass when you are not actively reading the Bible or not going to Him in prayer. Each day, you will be overjoyed to spend time with Him, and He will fill your heart with peace, hope, and love. This is the start of a beautiful relationship with God.
The Apostle Peter tells us, "For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21). As Peter says here, the Bible is divinely inspired by God. Each human wrote what was spoken through them by the Holy Spirit. This is true for all writers of the Bible. They were not writing their own personal views but what the Holy Spirit was instructing them to write.
Allow this to show you and your spouse that God's Word truly does contain the words of God. Everything we need is in the Bible. It tells us the way to salvation, how to live for God, and what happens after death. Devote time to reading the Bible daily and soak up God's Word with your spouse. It will prove to be beneficial for both this present life and the life to come.
Prayer:
"Dear God, my spouse and I have fallen out of the spiritual discipline of reading the Bible. I apologize, as I know this is not right. Please help my spouse and me start reading the Bible daily and learning what You want to teach us. Each day, we will set aside time for just You, God. I praise You, and I thank You, Amen."
Photo credit: ©GettyImages/andreswd
Related Resource: How to Make Your Prayer Habits Stick
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