Monday, 28^th April, 2025

Bible Reading: Ephesians 4:32

Memory Verse:  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13 (NIV)

A father in faith wrote: You must recognize that there are two kinds of things in the life of your spouse or partner. There are things that you can and must change in your partner. The things you can change and must try to change are those things that life and Satan have added to him or her. For example, if your husband likes to wear dirty clothes, you are supposed to change that in him. You have to find the wisdom of God so that you can understand how you will change that person. 

Secondly, there are certain things that you cannot, and must not try to change in the life of your spouse; these are aspects of their character that make the person who he or she is. They are his or her uniqueness and difference in life. If you are married to someone who does not take nonsense from people, you cannot, and must not try to change that; it is only God that can do that, and if God will change your partner, you have to take your obedience and instructions seriously. It is your responsibility to cover those things that you cannot change and that is the reason God married you to that person. Trying to change him or her will lead to misunderstanding.

Fighting the areas of differences between you and your spouse is a mistake that can cost you your marriage. There are some men that are so stingy that even their father cannot get anything from them, but if you check out their wives, you will often find that they are generous angels. A woman married to such a man should not fight the man about his stinginess; rather, she should cover him. If your spouse is like that, stop calling it stinginess; call it micromanagement.

One of the reasons why personality differences in marriage have been a big problem is that the devil has given us names for our differences. An average husband would often say that his wife “never keeps to time” or “wastes time.” You should stop complaining that your wife “wastes” time. Women do not waste time; they only use time differently from the way men use time. Stop complaining that your wife forgets everything. She is not forgetful; it is just that she keeps remembering things until the last minute.

A man is different from a woman in reasoning, and you must understand that. Women have a memory for details that men do not have. In the mind of a woman, thirty years ago is like yesterday and that is why a woman remembers all the details whenever there is a quarrel while the man has forgotten. Women build relationships with events. Women operate like a web; men operate like a ruler. You and your spouse must understand your differences to make your marriage work.

Quote: The hardest part in marriage is to understand that the very things that makes you different is why God brought you two together.

Prophetic Decree: Receive grace and an enlargement of heart to accommodate your spouse, in Jesus name. 

Prayer Focus 

1. I receive divine intelligence to know the things that I must change in my partner, and the things I must forbear, in Jesus name.

2. O Lord, reset my mindset about my spouse to your glory, in Jesus name. 

3. I receive grace not to fight the areas of differences between my spouse and I, in Jesus name. 

4. Grace to forgive (pardon) my spouse, overwhelm my heart, in Jesus name. 

5. I receive great grace to forbear (to create a permanent system of accommodating a fault because it will happen again and again) my spouse in Jesus name.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:  Psalms 81, 88, 92-93