What I notice is that you selected your husband, marrying him when you barely knew him, all based on your emotional response to him. You called it a leading from God, but clearly, God would not approve of his sinful life. However, because you wanted it so badly, you assumed that what you wanted is what God was wanting.<\/p>\n
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil<\/em>” (Proverbs 3:5-7).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Instead of using God’s teachings from the Bible to guide your life, you leaned on your own understanding. Yet, you blame God for your bad choices when you say that God sent this man into your life. You further blame God for not changing your husband, but God gives all people free choice. In essence, you are asking God to take away his choice. Your husband has made bad choices and you followed him. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful<\/em>” (Psalms 1:1).<\/p>\n
I’m glad you are trying to turn your life around. However, your choice of career is again contrary to God’s teaching. “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church. Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached? If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord<\/em>” (I Corinthians 14:34-37). It is fine to work with addicts and orphans, but this doesn’t translate to leading a church or addressing a congregation.<\/p>\n
Follow God completely. “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you<\/em>” (James 4:7). Yes, your husband needs teaching and I Peter 3:1-6 talks about how to best accomplish this. In regards to his sins, you cannot support him in those and you need to keep your family separated from his sinful behaviors, which is a large task.<\/p>\n
You are asking others to solve some big problems that you willing chose for yourself when you were younger and naive. Those problems don’t have easy solutions, which is why God has repeatedly warned us not to go that route. For now, focus on doing what is right in God’s sight. Everything can’t be solved, but you can at least reduce the damage.<\/p>\n\t
Question:<\/h2>\n
Hi Mr. Hamilton,<\/p>\n
I am in total awe at your prompt response; in fact, I didn’t think I would get a reply. May God continue blessing you.<\/p>\n
I totally agree with you, I married a man I didn’t know. Prior to meeting him, I had just lost my family and I lost my job due to drinking and drug use. Instead of my praying for God to forgive me and help me find another job as I had children to support, I’d pray for God to send me a man with money. I remember clearly how I would pray about how tired I am of not having as I grew up in poverty. In my prayer I even said I don’t care if he is a drug dealer, as long as he had money. Not long after these prayers, I met my husband, and I believed that he was God sent. Yes, I trusted that God would change him. My late grandmother often told me that if I don’t put attention to how much I love money and alcohol and prayed for my deliverance. I would be led into dark places, and it happened just as she warned.<\/p>\n
This has been the hardest ten years of my life. I thought growing up in poverty, enduring daily abuse from my uncle, and being abandoned by my mother was hard. But I’ve grown to learn that was nothing compared to where I’ve been for the past 10 years — raising my children with blood money, causing my brother to stumble so that I can eat. My friends say it’s not me as I don’t make it he does, yet I believe I’m a part of it as we are married. We’ve been using drugs since we met and it’s been miserable. All I want is to serve my God, yet I keep returning back to him as it’s a sin to divorce, but in this environment, I stumble over and over.<\/p>\n
I’m also very heartbroken to learn that it’s against the word of God for me to be a minister as this has always been my passion. So female ministers like Joyce Meyer are wrong? I want to do the will of God, yet I keep relapsing. Should I move to a safe environment away from drugs?<\/p>\nI’d also like to add that my children have different fathers. At 17 I found my abuser dead and I remember how happy I was for myself, yet sad for my grandmother’s pain. It’s after his death that I rebelled. I met my first boyfriend just after my abuser died, I then had my first child. He then left me for another woman. Several years later I met my first husband. He was a hardcore addict, and I knew it, yet I chose to get married to him and have a child. Our marriage didn’t last long, I left him as his drug abuse escalated.\u00a0 My current marriage is my third and we have a child together. I’ve always made my own choices and never choices based on the word of God.\nI really need prayer and guidance as to ending this pattern of sin. It’s not what God had in mind for me. I need to be consistent and committed to my decision to follow Christ, yet I battle. This is awful.\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
There will always be people teaching their own desires instead of following God’s word. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables<\/em>” (II Timothy 4:3-4). Women preachers are just one aspect of people turning against what God taught.<\/p>\n