Work Your Talent

It’s always a joy to have something to share with you on marriage issues. I pray as always that the Lord will touch you and your marriage mightily through this platform in Jesus name.

Today I want to share a little of what God dropped in my spirit concerning our service to God with our marriages. I have had to speak to a handful of people with troubled marriages who are so bent on throwing in the towel and just walking away. I pray that the Holy-Spirit will through this post reach more people than I can physically reach with this revelation.

One common thing about troubled marriages is that either the wife or husband is always quick to give up. The saying that “Marriage is not a do or die affair” is becoming quite common, most especially when violence is beginning to find its way into the already complicated situation.

But when I was talking to a young lady who simply told me that she didn’t want her marriage anymore and I was praying in my spirit for a response to give her, the Lord dropped in my spirit “The Parable of the Loaned Money” that Jesus told in Matthew 25:14-30. In this parable, a man was going on a journey and he entrusted his property to his servants. To one he gave a talent, to another he gave two talents and to the third, he gave five talents according to their ability.

We read in that passage that the servant who received five talents immediately put his talents to work and got five more. The one who received two talents did likewise and got two additional talents. But the servant who was given just a talent dug his in the ground and awaited the return of the owner. When the owner returned and asked what was done to the talent and why he didn’t put the talent to work, he replied by narrating how wicked the owner of the talent was. What a response that was.

Now, many of us would label this servant with so many negative names and its so easy that we can do so. But we are as equally guilty as the servant who has refused to put his one talent to work. What I am about to share in this blog post isn’t just for anybody, but for those who truly have the Spirit of God ruling in their lives.

So many of us believe that we met our spouses, fell in love and got married. But it’s a little beyond that, it's not as simple as we think and so waking up one morning to tell yourself that you want to walk out of your marriage is not as simple as we children of God take it to be. At the beginning in Genesis 2:18, God said it is not good that the man should be alone and after looking at all that He (God) had created and could not find a helper suitable for the man, He caused the man to fall into a deep sleep and from him, He made a woman as a suitable helper for the man.

The divine revelation that comes from is that as a wife you are on assignment in the life of your husband. This assignment was not given to you by your husband, it was not given to you by your parents or your husband’s parents, the assignment was given to you by God. It is the Lord God almighty who placed you in the life of your husband to fulfill His divine purpose in the life of your husband.

When God gave you that assignment, He never declared to you that the assignment would be easy, but one important thing about God’s assignment is that He equips you for the job and in fact proceed to stand by you as you execute the assignment, never leaving nor forsaking you. He is ever ready to uphold you whenever you are met with an obstacle on your way. 

Your marriage is an assignment to you from God. And every assignment God gives us is in line with the ability that He has put in us. God will not give you an assignment beyond your ability. When you look at your marriage and tell yourself you can’t take the stress anymore and so you want to walk out of it, you are simply acting like that servant in Matthew 25:14-30 who was given just a talent. You are simply telling God to take back that which belongs to Him. What you should have worked on and invested so much in such that it yields for you in multiple of what you have sown in it, you chose to abandon it in the ground and then return it back to the Owner.

Saying you want a divorce is like telling God directly to His face that this assignment He has given to you is an assignment you can’t see through nor wish to see through. And I know a lot of people will wonder what should be the approach in an extreme case of either violence or emotional abuse in marriage, but the truth is that the moment we truly let God take the led in any situation in our marriages and are diligent to follow with His instruction and most especially what the instruction says in His word, then you are bound to succeed and excel in your marriage. In the light of obedience to the word of God, violence and any other abuse will cease to operate any longer. 

One important thing we need to understand is that we can’t change our spouses, only God can. But speaking to the wives now, don’t think your husband can change just because you tried to advise him, or you tried to correct him. I have heard a lot of wives say their husbands don’t take to correction. When you are in a marriage with the mindset of correcting your husband’s fault, then you won’t go far in making a success of the assignment. Whatever changes you desire to see in your husband, you need to truthfully pray to God about it and listen to God’s instruction and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in bringing about the correction that you desire.

One prayer I never cease to pray for my husband is the prayer of wisdom. I always tell God that all that my husband needs to be a good husband to me and a good father to our children, the Lord should provide for him. For me, it’s an all-encompassing prayer. The Lord knows my needs even before they arise and so He alone knows what He would provide in the life of my husband to meet those needs. And just as I pray such prayer for my husband, I also pray for myself that all that my husband needs in a wife the Lord should provide them all in me. I pray for wisdom to be a good wife to my husband as much as I pray for wisdom for my husband to be a good husband to me and because I serve a living God who hears and answers prayers, I am seeing the manifestation of what I have asked of God in my marriage.

I have heard a lot of wives say they have prayed so heard for their husband without any result and so they are tired of praying. But in truth is, when we pray what do we ask the Lord for concerning our husbands. Is our request in line with the will of God for our marriage? And then when we pray, do we listen for a response from God in the form of instructions on what to do? Are those instructions in line with what we read in the Bible? Prayer without deeds, the Bible says is dead. And doing anything that does not align with the instructions of God for our marriages will only kill the marriage the more.

As a married person, be it the husband or the wife, what are you making of the talent the Lord has entrusted into your hands in the person of your spouse? Remember what God entrusted into your hands is in line with your ability. God never promised that working the talent to produce result will be easy, but one truth is that God will always be with you and help you through it. Just like working for money is not easy and working to raise wonderful children isn't easy, so also is it that working for a good marriage isn't easy.  Looking at your spouse today as a husband or as a wife how have you faired in the assignment God gave to you in the life of your spouse?

If you would pray and believe that God will answer your prayers over your job and finances, if you would pray and believe that God would breathe life on your business, then you can as well pray and believe that God would bring about the change that you seek and desire in your husband or wife. If God would hear and answer me, He will do much more for you.