Daily Devotional for Thursday June 15, 2017

A Sad Sign of Our Rebellion to God

(2 Timothy 3:1-7)

***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: Dear Lord, I ask you today to open my heart and my Spirit to receive what you have for me today. Let me hear Your voice clearly and obediently follow You. Use me oh Lord, for your glory and to advance Your Kingdom! In the name of Jesus...AMEN!!!

Without a doubt, the most powerful evidence to me personally that we are living in the last days as described in' Paul's second letter to his young disciple Timothy, is women who not just leave their husbands, but their children as well. In my 25 years of being in full-time ministry, what I saw ”rarely” when I started, is quite common today.

I am not sure if there is a greater example of the last days than when a woman not just breaks her marriage vows to God and her husband, but leaves without her children. The natural bond and love of a mother and her children is one of the strongest bonds there is. For that bond to be broken by so many is a sad reality of the world we live in today and further evidence that Jesus is coming very soon.

Fifty years ago, it was predominantly men who left the marriage. It was men who cheated on their wives, got blinded by sin, and with their hearts and consciences seared, left their wife and children. Just 50 short years later, it is pretty much 50/50 now between men and women in leaving their spouse. There are lots of contributing factors to women becoming caught up in the same sins and bondages that in the past mostly men were involved in.

A HUGE factor is the women's movement that started in the mid-60s. God's Word clearly teaches that men and women are 50/50 partners with different roles to fulfill. The great lie of the women's movement is that men and women must be equal in every way. I hate to break this to the feminists, but you can burn your bra, put on a pair of jeans, work construction, and it will never make you a man! God made men and women different in every way.

With women being brainwashed that they had to work, that staying home, and being a wife to her husband and a mom to her kids was no longer acceptable, women began to fall into the same traps men fall into. Their career became their first priority. They began chasing the almighty dollar, putting their job ahead of everything else in their life including their marriage and children. They got caught up in all the sin traps inherent in the workplace like office romances and adulterous affairs. Sadly, women were now equal with men, but not in a positive way. Work and money became their god, marriage and family lost its importance, and sexual sin was always available and accessible.

The other lie women have been fed these past 50 years has been that they no longer need a man in their life. Since they have a career, they don't need a man to provide for them financially. They can still have children, but can raise them just fine without a father. There are plenty of men out there who are willing to satisfy them sexually, though another woman is just as good. So, in this new age of being a woman, a man is seen as more of a hassle, more of an inconvenience than a lifetime partner through this journey.

We now have a third generation of women growing up with this as the prevailing mindset. Sadly, many in the last two generations grew up with mothers who bought into these lies that are reinforced daily by the secular media, and they grew up in an environment where they didn't know anything else. They never were taught the Biblical roles for men and women and have only known these lies the world has fed to them, accepting the lies as the truth (another big sign of the last days).

Of course, that also means we are now into our third generation of men who also were never taught the Biblical roles of men and women, and they too have bought these lies as the truth. Through all of this we have a lack of understanding by men and women on what their Biblical roles are, and a total meltdown of God's holy institution of marriage and the family.

So, it is no wonder why I get emails daily from men who come home from work one day and find their wife gone and the house empty. In some cases, I mean LITERALLY empty. Sadly, women now leave their husbands with the same lame excuses men have used for so long, "I don't love you any longer," "I need space and need to be alone for a while," "I still love you, but not in the same way," "I feel trapped and have to find myself," "I am leaving, I need to do this for me," "I am not happy, and I deserve to be happy," and on and on and on the excuses to leave their husbands go.

Oh, and in the background you have the Oprah’s of the world leading the cheers to the divorce" court, "You go, girlfriend, you tell that man. Kick him to the curb, you don't need a man." Divorce is a sin and is never part of God's plan!!!

For the women reading this today, please, don't fall for this lie of satan that your life will be better by leaving your husband and family. THE DEVIL IS A LIAR! Your life will not be better, it will be worse. It will not be blessed, it will be cursed! God is not going to bless sin my friend. The reality is, the same time and energy, and emotions, and feelings you will have to put into another man, will reap blessings if you put them into your husband!

That is why leaving your husband is so foolish. A new relationship is always fresh and exciting, but after some time passes, you realize that there are just as many problems, just as many issues as you had before. Marriage takes work! That is why you see people getting married 3, 4, 5, 6 times and more. When the honeymoon is over, they aren't willing to put forth the effort a marriage requires.

Marriage is a serious commitment, a lifetime commitment. Please, take the time to build a solid spiritual foundation with the man you plan to marry over as much time as is necessary to clearly hear from God many times that this is the one, this is His plan for your life. It is that spiritual foundation that will sustain you both over the many years of marriage, through the good times as well as the difficult times all marriages encounter. God will bless your marriage as you keep Him at the center of your lives together. As you honor your vows to God, God will honor you.

I love you and care about you so much. I am praying for the women out there today to realize that society, our culture has lied to you. You don’t need to go to work to be “equal with a man.” YOU ALREADY ARE! God made men and women equal! They simply have different roles to perform.!

Your number one role, like it is for a man, is to serve and glorify God with your life. You do that by fulfilling your Biblical role of being a mother to your children, a helpmate to your husband. As I have stated in the past, women, your 1 ministry during your life will always be in raising your children in the admonition of the Lord! God has created women uniquely different from men to be able to do things men can never properly or naturally do, just like God has uniquely created men to be able to do things a woman can never properly or naturally do.

For those men out there who are currently dealing with a wife who has left you, you are not responsible for her choices. God gave us each free will and only He can change your wife’s heart. Now is the time to make your faith real and learn to trust God during this difficult time. Find your peace, and hope, and strength in Him each day. I will be praying for your wife to turn her heart and life completely back to the Lord and to you and your marriage. God is still a God of restoration!

I will be praying today for those women who have bought into this lie to leave your marriage, to repent, ask God's forgiveness, go to your husband and ask his forgiveness, and get your life back together. For you men, don’t give up on your marriage. I am praying for His strength in your life today.

I am praying specifically today for marriages that need God's healing touch. I refuse to simply allow these marriages we hear from day after day become statistics satan can gloat over. I am believing God for these marriages to be restored as a trophy of His grace for His glory! Women, rise up and be the women of God He has called you to be as a daughter of the Lord Jesus Christ, a Proverbs 31 wife, and a Godly mother to your children!

In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ, Bill Keller