This week's Fighting Words comes from the best half... Cindy told me this tonight on the way home from a leadership meeting. I was blown away. "You must do the blog tonight!" And, here it is...
Revelation 12:11 for Marriage
11 They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
I was sitting in a leadership training meeting tonight and someone spoke about the power of an invitation. Bam! Invitations are great…but testimonies? Testimonies change lives. Testimonies encourage and fuel our faith. Testimonies resonate with us. Sharing what Jesus has accomplished in and through us is powerful. And immediately during this I thought about Revelation 12:11 and what it means for marriage.
“By the blood of the Lamb”
Without applying the blood of the lamb to my spouse and myself, I will not triumph over the enemy or my flesh. With Jesus’ forgiving, powerful lifeforce blood covering my sin and my spouse’s sin (those annoying sins that grate on us and wear us down), I will triumph. I will see triumph in my marriage.
“And by the word of their testimony;”
So many people won’t share what is happening because if they isolate, no one knows just how bad it is; how bad they are. If we don’t share the struggle, we cannot share in the testimony of the healing, freedom, and victory. By sharing as couples with other couples, we give courage for others to believe God can do what He has already done for us. We show them the depth of our own brokenness, selfishness, and unrepentant hearts, and then they get to rejoice when we are new creatures. They get to see us holding hands and know we are not being fake. They know the road we walked and they know we have suffered long to enter this place of peace. Our hurting marriage hurts no longer and they can share in the testimony … they were with us on the journey. They didn’t lick our wounds or tell us to “man up” or “woman up” or let us continue in patterns of sin. They shared what God said – sometimes offending but “faithful are the wounds of a friend” – and what the Holy Spirit told them to say, and we were changed because of their lives and their testimonies that they shared that showed us we were not alone in this struggle of oneness.
“they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death”
If we do not die to our own wants, needs, desires, expectations, selfish ambition, vain conceits, we will not overcome. We must die. We are better wives when we die. Our husbands are better husbands when they die to themselves. When I serve, I overcome. When I prefer my husband, I overcome. I want to die to my own pride. I want to overcome. I do not want to love my life so much that I am afraid to lose it. I will overcome in my marriage when I embrace the death of myself and let Christ live in me.
To the overcomers, Marriage Fight Clubbers and those who pre-date MFC (Jimmy & Kathleen and Mark & Jody), thank you for teaching us how to live Revelation 12:11. May we now go and do likewise.
