Written by :   Zac Poonen Categories :   Woman The home Man
WFTW Body: 

God dwells in a home where there is peace. When Jesus sent His disciples out to different places to preach, He told them in Luke 10:5- 7, to look for a home where there was peace, and when they found a home like that, they were to stay only there and not look for another home. Why did He say that? Because He knew that they would not find many homes where there was peace.

God dwells in a home where there is no fighting. What do husbands and wives fight about in any case? Mostly about material things - some earthly matter that went wrong. Things will go wrong in this world, but when something goes wrong, remember that the only thing that is serious is sin. All other matters are secondary and unimportant. I hope every husband and wife will see this clearly: the only thing that is serious is sin. If a husband and wife have bitterness at any time and will not talk to each other because of earthly problems, that will grieve God's heart. Let me share this little bit of wisdom: Hate sin - because that is the only thing that can destroy a marriage. Remember that the home is to be a sanctuary for God. And if anything comes up that disturbs the peace in the home, it won't be a sanctuary any longer.

I hope that in everything we do, we will say. "Lord, we are not interested in whether men are happy with us or not. Are You happy? Is there anything in our lives, in our thoughts or our attitudes towards one another that is making You unhappy? We want you to be happy in our home. We are going to assess everything in our lives by this question: "Will this please the Lord?" Can we imagine what our home will be like then? It will have the same glory of God that shone on the tabernacle, and people will be drawn to the living God through our home.

God dwells where both husband and wife are willing to give up their rights for the sake of peace. Once a young couple, who were on their way to catch a train, came to me and they said, "Brother Zac, can you give us an exhortation in two minutes?" I said, "Sure. Here it is: Always be ready to ask forgiveness from one another; and always be ready to forgive one another." If we are ready to ask forgiveness as soon as we have done something wrong and we are ready to forgive immediately, as soon as the other person asks for forgiveness, I can give you a written guarantee that our homes will be homes of peace, everyday.

But we have got to be very sensitive in this matter. If we get a thorn in our foot, we would not wait even for a second to remove it. In the same way, as soon as we sense some disturbance in our heart, we must remove it at once. It's a thorn; and it will destroy us. It will infect our heart more than any thorn can infect our foot. Pursue peace at any cost. Never mind whatever else we may lose - money or whatever- Those things are not as important as peace. I hope every husband and wife will recognize that if they were to weigh peace and money in a balance, peace will be found to be much heavier than money. Remember that!

Did something go wrong at home one day? Did the food get burnt? Never mind. What does it matter if we can't eat one meal because the food was burnt. That will probably keep us fitter and healthier and perhaps even make us more spiritual! But if we get upset over it, then the devil would have won the victory.

Remember what happened to the first home that God established. The devil was just waiting on the sidelines trying to come between Adam and Eve. And he succeeded. He succeeded in coming between Job and his wife too. He succeeded in coming between Isaac and Rebekah, as well.

It is never God's will that Satan should come between a husband and a wife.