Practices for Marriage and Overcoming a Mind Divided – Purity 1893
Purity 1893 02/21/2026 Purity 1893 Audio Podcast
Purity 1893 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the silhouettes of oceanside resorts set against the backdrop of the early morning sunshine of the first light of day comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this magic morning moment while on vacation at Myrtle Beach back on February 22nd, 2023.
Well, it’s Saturday, and even though I feel a little tired this morning, I am rejoicing because it’s the weekend and I am at my countryside home in the presence of the one I love, my wife, TammyLyn.
The risk every married couple faces is that the thrill of your initial love affair will fade away after you tie the knot, and that you will begin to take each other for granted and stop appreciating one another as you become more familiar with one another and life’s stresses test your patience with one another. So we have to be intentional about loving our spouses and to remember that they are the person whom God has blessed you with, and that as much as you may claim to love them with all your heart, the Lord loves them more, and we should remember to treat them as the son or daughter whom Father God has entrusted us with.
When stress comes in, we can become annoyed with our spouses very easily because we live in such close proximity to one another and get to see each other in our least flattering moments. Nobody is perfect, and we can easily be offended or annoyed by the people who are closest to us, and if we are not careful, we can become bitter and harbor resentments toward the one we have agreed to spend the rest of our lives with. When that happens, the world, the flesh, and the devil are quick to come in to offer all sorts of sinful solutions to your relational pain—like drugs, alcohol, an affair, excessive eating or spending, and, of course, divorce.
However, if we choose to follow the Lord’s plan for our marriage, we can avoid these traps with regular practices of appreciation, kindness, gratitude, forgiveness, patience, and love. In case you forgot, or somehow didn’t know, we can stay in a good relational headspace toward our spouses by practicing:
• Appreciation – where we remind ourselves and reflect on the positive attributes of our spouse and actively express to them how we appreciate them for the person they are and for the things they do.
• Gratitude – we give thanks to God for our spouse and express to them how thankful we are for their love and for their special place in our lives.
• Forgiveness – No relationship is perfect, and offenses will come. In order to maintain relational harmony, we need to forgive our spouses and seek to resolve conflicts quickly.
• Patience – The tensions of life cause us to be pulled into negative mind states that will tempt us to lash out at one another with anger, and unfortunately, our spouses could be the ones who catch the brunt of our dissatisfaction. However, if we choose to pause before we speak and practice discernment over what we say and when we say it, and just wait things out, our practice of patience will save us from a lot of regrettable actions.
• Kindness – When we are kind to one another and perform little acts of kindness for our spouse to help them through life, our marriages become a safe haven of peace.
• Love – Let’s not forget what brought us here. If the Lord calls us to love our neighbors, we certainly should remember to love our spouses. From close physical, intimate contact to verbal expressions, to just spending quality time in one another’s presence, let’s let our love flow to the one who loves us.
If we practice these things in our marriages, our marriages will be a place of joy and peace, and we won’t have to worry about anything dividing us from our marriage union.
Speaking of worry and being divided, David Jeremiah’s Living in the Light devotional for today speaks about worry and anxiety, and I am sharing it on the blog today to remind us that we are to be anxious for nothing.
A Mind Divided
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. – PHILIPPIANS 4:6–7
The Greek word for “anxious” means to “have a mind divided” between legitimate thoughts and destructive thoughts. Worry can be all-consuming and can lead us to abandon not only the Word of God but also our trust in God. When we focus on our worries, we don’t remember to go to our Heavenly Father with them. Instead, we sit with our worry and don’t let it go.
In a study of people with generalized anxiety disorder, it was found that about 91% of their worries did not come true, and of the 9% that did, about a third of the time the outcome wasn’t as bad as expected. Still, we don’t like to give that worry up.
When we look back at Israel’s wars in the Old Testament, we find that when Israel fought in her own strength, she was always defeated. But when she cast herself upon God’s mercy, she won.
Sometimes we’re so busy worrying that we forget that our God is always with us and will give us peace, protection, comfort, and encouragement if we only ask. Whenever you feel anxious, don’t wait! Go to God with your troubles and experience the peace that surpasses all understanding.” – David Jeremiah
Amen. Since sin came into the world at the original fall of man, there are many troublesome possible circumstances that could affect our lives. If we put our focus on all the possible negative outcomes, we will never have a moment’s peace.
However, when we put our faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, we don’t have to worry anymore because He has overcome the world and saves us from the effects of sin. His work on the cross pays our sin debt, removing the guilt and shame of the past. His atoning work also gives us peace with God and brings us into God’s kingdom and makes us a part of His family, where we will live forever and ever, taking away the fear of death and the future.
Through our faith in Jesus, the worries over our pasts and futures are resolved, giving us the choice to follow the Lord into peace for today.
If we choose to focus on the world and its problems, we will worry, but if we focus on God, giving thanks and praying, we will walk confidently with Him through whatever situations may come our way, with the boldness and peace of someone who knows that God is on their side, and therefore there is absolutely nothing to worry about any longer.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis.
(While Bible verses on various topics of counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work.) (The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis on Amazon)
This morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on the Providence of God
Matthew 6:25–34
Matthew 6:30 (NLT) And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?
Today’s verse is the second of two passages of scripture that fall under the third point of our counseling reference guide resource section on the Providence of God.
3. God cares for the birds and the flowers and certainly will then care for his children.
Today’s Bible verse is the words of Jesus that assure us of God’s care for us. Jesus often pointed to the things of this world to remind us of some fundamental truths about God. Here, He points to the wonder of flowers, their beauty, and how they are cared for throughout their short lives, given everything they need to flourish and carry on.
With this object lesson, Jesus encourages us to understand that God cares even more for us and to have faith in God’s love.
Ironically, Jesus’ presence in the world itself was the ultimate expression of God’s love for us, and we should remember how much we are loved and cared for by God through His teachings and because of His life-giving sacrifice on the cross.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today, we continue sharing from “Pause for Power” By Warren Wiersbe.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Wiersbe’s books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 27 – Run for Your (Spiritual) Life – Read 1 Corinthians 9:19–27
Run in such a way as to get the prize. – 1 Corinthians 9:24
Athletes must be disciplined if they are to win the prize. Discipline means giving up the good and the better for the best. Athletes must watch their diet as well as their sleeping schedules. They must smile and say, “No, thank you,” when people offer them fattening desserts or invite them to late-night parties. There is nothing wrong with food or fun, but if they interfere with people’s highest goals, then they become hindrances.
We Christians, do not run the race in order to get to heaven. We are in the race because we have been saved through faith in Jesus Christ. Only Greek citizens were allowed to participate in the games, and they had to obey the rules both in their training and in their performing; any contestant found breaking the training rules was disqualified. Famous athlete Jim Thorpe had to return his Olympic gold medals because it was discovered that he had previously played on a professional team.
In order to give up his rights and have the joy of winning lost souls, Paul had to discipline himself. That is the emphasis of 1 Corinthians 9: Authority (rights) must be balanced by discipline. If we want to serve the Lord and win His reward, we must pay the price.
Something to Ponder – In what ways has your spiritual life been like a race so far?[1]
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[1] Warren W. Wiersbe, Pause for Power: A 365-Day Journey through the Scriptures, 2nd Ed., Year in the Word Series (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2010).
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