A DAY FOR YOUR PASTOR’S HOME…

Dear Believer,

Today the 5th day of August marks the 20th anniversary of our marriage. Yes, I am joyful and thankful. But I am also soberly contemplative.

How so, you may ask.

One of the greatest concerns of our ministry is the home. It seems to me that the more we counsel people, the more the homes keep having problems. My concern is primary for the Christian homes, and today I am even more concerned for the Christian minister’s home. I invite you today to join me to pray for the homes of the ministers around you and your own home. 

The basic building blocks of any society is the home. Most of the evil we see in the society can be traced to the instability in the home.

The homes of the unbelievers are breaking here and there, and as things stand, the church doesn’t seem to be faring better.

You must have noticed that the divorce rate among pastors is spiking. News keep breaking of high-profile pastors who separate from or divorce their wives. We need to know that the problem between such pastors and their wives didn’t start when we got to hear about it. Their home had been a hell for everyone before the explosion eventually took place, shattering and scattering the members of the family.

I am a pastor, and God has given me a peaceful home. He has granted me to have godly children, too. I confess today that it is all of Grace. But I am concerned for many who don’t seem to be having it as good. 

When the shepherds’ homes are smitten and broken, other homes follow, even if slowly. The issue then is “If Pastor So-and-so could divorced his wife and each of them moved on, I can, too”!

Join me today to pray for your pastor and other pastors and ministers of the gospel you may know. Many of them are trying their best to do the work of God under severe pressure and family problems. Their homes are being attacked by the devil. They need your prayer.

The devil has his strategy:

“….Smite the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered…” Zechariah 13:7.

This can be applied to the home, too.

When the shepherds’ homes are smitten and broken, other homes follow, even if slowly. The issue then is “If Pastor So-and-so could divorced his wife and each of them moved on, I can, too”!

When the sacrosanctness of marriage is thus diminished, the concept of the home is watered down and the responsibilities of it’s members don’t seem that absolute. (This is particularly true if it happens to pastors who are supposed to hold up the banner of divine institutions as examples to others). Strange situations are then gradually normalized, like unfaithfulness. We see all over the world the consequences of such abnormality in children of Believers who are straying away from God and have even become the enemy of the church. They have come to see the faith their parents profess as a sham. What substance is there in a God that the parents say can do all things but can’t help them to live together in peace and can’t stop them from being bitter and vindictive, the children intelligently reason.

Dear Believer, join me to pray for your pastor and other ministers you may know today…

• That the peace of God that passes understanding envelope their hearts and homes;
• That the powers of evil attacking their marriages be bound and taken away;
• That they experience the ministry of angels in the divine provision of their needs;
• That the Lord send them helpers and counselors who will minister to them as they minister to people;
• That the Holy Spirit will move powerfully to teach them to love their spouses and exercise forbearance and not be primed for quarrels and fights;
• That their children will come to know the Lord for themselves and have visitations from the Lord that will convince them of who the Lord is so that they won’t stray away from the faith or live immoral and godless lives.

As you congratulate my wife and I today, forget not to pray for us on this 20th anniversary of our wedding, too, for we have great things put on our minds by the Lord for His people. Ask for divine empowerment and provision for us in every area if life and ministry.

(Please read Isaiah chapter 54 and pray with those powerful verses for us ministers.)

My wife and I thank you today.

We know you love us.

And we love you too!

Your grateful friend,
Deon.