I came upon the following principles in the following statements today, and I felt I gained a better understanding. I wanted to share them here.<P>When I entered the "race" for my marriage, I began it with my marriage as my goal - certainly for me and what I thought was right for her, too. But I soon realized that I had entered too late. I am still running it anyway, and I am now running it for God. It is apparent that He has entered me into the race, to change ME. The LORD and my savior, Jesus Christ, are becoming everything to me. Over the past five months, as things got worse and worse, HE could not and has not let me down. Because GOD owes me nothing. If he never restores my marriage, I will still praise Him and do everything because He is worth it and HE deserves it.<P>I do not deserve, nor can I earn, a restored marriage. I am too much of a sinner for that. But I pray that God has mercy on me. Through my suffering I can and will learn obedience. This will give me the right heart towards Him, which is His goal all along.<P><BR>Additionally, everyday I come home with the nervous expectation of the final package from the lawyers to be laying with the mail inside the door. Lord, I pray that tomorrow that you keep these unholy documents from entering my home and that you fill my wife's heart with reconciling love and forgiveness for me. Thank you for hearing and answering all our prayers, and may you and only you be exalted here on earth. Amen.<P>Chris

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by cbrixius:<BR><B>I came upon the following principles in the following statements today, and I felt I gained a better understanding. I wanted to share them here.<P>When I entered the "race" for my marriage, I began it with my marriage as my goal - certainly for me and what I thought was right for her, too. But I soon realized that I had entered too late. I am still running it anyway, and I am now running it for God. It is apparent that He has entered me into the race, to change ME. The LORD and my savior, Jesus Christ, are becoming everything to me. Over the past five months, as things got worse and worse, HE could not and has not let me down. Because GOD owes me nothing. If he never restores my marriage, I will still praise Him and do everything because He is worth it and HE deserves it.<P>I do not deserve, nor can I earn, a restored marriage. I am too much of a sinner for that. But I pray that God has mercy on me. Through my suffering I can and will learn obedience. This will give me the right heart towards Him, which is His goal all along.<P><BR>Additionally, everyday I come home with the nervous expectation of the final package from the lawyers to be laying with the mail inside the door. Lord, I pray that tomorrow that you keep these unholy documents from entering my home and that you fill my wife's heart with reconciling love and forgiveness for me. Thank you for hearing and answering all our prayers, and may you and only you be exalted here on earth. Amen.<P>Chris</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>I don't know where you found thouse statements and principles but they articulate exactly how I feel also.<BR>A coupe of questions, are you still living with your wife and has she filed papers. <BR>I am in the same house with my wife and she has filed papers, nothing I do seems to matter to her.<BR>I would appreciate you replying to me.<BR>Joe<BR>

Joe,<P>Thank you for replying,<P>My beautiful and precious wife left me on April Fool's Day. She had been mentally divorcing me for months before that. In mid-May, she filed papers. It has been a long, hard road, one where I have reached depths unknown to me. Looking back now, I can clearly see the plan Satan left to destroy our marriage and relationship. I feel I even know why, because of a statement my wife told me recently. She told me that in February and March she was praying that I would change, because she was depressed, sad, and hurt. Both of our marriage expectations and our emotional needs were not being met. I was comfortable that things would iron out in the long run. She was not.<P>She set things in motion through her prayers. But God saw me as someone who was very independent of Him. I thought I knew everything, could fix everything myself. I believed in God, but I thought I was already blessed and protected through my seemingly perfect life set before me. God knew the only way to reach me was to take the one thing away from me that I cherished most, the one thing that protected me from the world outside of the both of us. And so He did it. He allowed Satan to sift me. I spent all of April after the separation on through early June trying to fight for my marriage through any means possible. I fell into the lies and deception of the Devil one by one. <P>Then I started being led to resources to give me a better understanding of the truth. The TRUTH of GOD. I found MB, and here I followed a link to the Restore Ministries website. The entirely scripture-based materials available there are invaluable to me. The books for men felt like they were speaking directly to my soul and have truly laid a foundation for me to build upon for the rest of my life here on earth. My earlier post stems from something I read there the other day.<P>Many miracles have occurred to me since I have been truly saved by Jesus Christ. The walls between my wife and I have been lowered, my financial well-being has been improved, but most importantly, I have a new-found trust in God, that His word is infallible, and he does have a plan for my Life, one that I pray in Christ's name includes the restoration of my relationship with my wife, the only one God meant for me.<P>Joe, my advice to you is not give up, even though she filed. Step out of your situation, Let God work on you and your marriage. He is begging you to. Also, be wary of attacks by Satan. Your wife is not your enemy. Pretend she is possessed in your own mind, but don't treat her that way. Listen to, and accept everything she has to say, no matter how much it hurts. Satan will attack you, because he has too much invested in divorcing the both of you already. he is not going to go away easily. Let God make him disappear, because only He can.<P>My prayers are with you.<P>Chris

Chris, you may not deserve your marriage being restored, but the Lord does. Be encouraged that the Lord will restore your marriage not because we may or may not deserve it, but because it give Him great glory and honor to do so. Trust in Him to heal and forgive both you and your W for whatever sins you have committed. God says, "I remember them no more"<P>There is a balance between humility and hearing the accuser of the bretheren telling us about all our sins. <P>Dear Lord, I lift my brother and his W up to you that you would bring about restoration for their marriage and come againts the enemies puppets and letters from the devil. May the restoration of their marriage bring you glory. Draw near to Chris as he draws near to you and purify his heart and give him your strenth Lord. Bring about forgiveness in his wifes heart and allow her to see your forgivness towards us Lord. In Jesus name, Amen<BR>Mark

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by cbrixius:<BR><B>Joe,<P>Thank you for replying,<P>My beautiful and precious wife left me on April Fool's Day. She had been mentally divorcing me for months before that. In mid-May, she filed papers. It has been a long, hard road, one where I have reached depths unknown to me. Looking back now, I can clearly see the plan Satan left to destroy our marriage and relationship. I feel I even know why, because of a statement my wife told me recently. She told me that in February and March she was praying that I would change, because she was depressed, sad, and hurt. Both of our marriage expectations and our emotional needs were not being met. I was comfortable that things would iron out in the long run. She was not.<P>She set things in motion through her prayers. But God saw me as someone who was very independent of Him. I thought I knew everything, could fix everything myself. I believed in God, but I thought I was already blessed and protected through my seemingly perfect life set before me. God knew the only way to reach me was to take the one thing away from me that I cherished most, the one thing that protected me from the world outside of the both of us. And so He did it. He allowed Satan to sift me. I spent all of April after the separation on through early June trying to fight for my marriage through any means possible. I fell into the lies and deception of the Devil one by one. <P>Then I started being led to resources to give me a better understanding of the truth. The TRUTH of GOD. I found MB, and here I followed a link to the Restore Ministries website. The entirely scripture-based materials available there are invaluable to me. The books for men felt like they were speaking directly to my soul and have truly laid a foundation for me to build upon for the rest of my life here on earth. My earlier post stems from something I read there the other day.<P>Many miracles have occurred to me since I have been truly saved by Jesus Christ. The walls between my wife and I have been lowered, my financial well-being has been improved, but most importantly, I have a new-found trust in God, that His word is infallible, and he does have a plan for my Life, one that I pray in Christ's name includes the restoration of my relationship with my wife, the only one God meant for me.<P>Joe, my advice to you is not give up, even though she filed. Step out of your situation, Let God work on you and your marriage. He is begging you to. Also, be wary of attacks by Satan. Your wife is not your enemy. Pretend she is possessed in your own mind, but don't treat her that way. Listen to, and accept everything she has to say, no matter how much it hurts. Satan will attack you, because he has too much invested in divorcing the both of you already. he is not going to go away easily. Let God make him disappear, because only He can.<P>My prayers are with you.<P>Chris<P>I feel so much the same as you. I know God has a purpose in all this but my wife also has a free will which means there is no guarantee what she will do. I know when this is all over, if I stay true to God, things will be good in the end. The problems are what will happen until the end comes and how long will that be?<BR>You know what happens when you pray for patience? In case you don't know, you get tribulation, so we can't pray for patience only be patient, prayerful, hopeful, scriptual, and Godly as best as we can and know how.<P>Joe<P>Chris</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>