Good morning! May the Lord bless and keep you today. May His face shine upon you and give you peace. Enjoy your day. 

Bible Verse – 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 NLT

“²⁹ But let me say this, dear brothers and sisters: The time that remains is very short. So from now on, those with wives should not focus only on their marriage.  ³⁰ Those who weep or who rejoice or who buy things should not be absorbed by their weeping or their joy or their possessions. ³¹ Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away.”

Reflection

Paul reminds us that the things of this world are nice, but they are temporal. 

Brothers and sisters, if you are married there is a spiritual obligation to marriage, but our first love should always be for God. God should always be at the center/head of your marriage. As you seek God for direction in your marriage, as you submit your marriage to the Lord, as husbands love their wives as Christ loves the church and wives submit themselves to their husbands as the church submits to Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33), you can trust the Lord to grow and mature you in faith and in your marriage. Again, this doesn’t mean your marriage will be easy. Marriage is a lot of work for both parties. But what it does mean is that you trust God above yourself and have more faith in God in your marriage to love, submit and respect one another.

Additionally, Paul reminds us not to be overly occupied with weeping, joy, or possessions because they are not only temporal, but if they take the place of God in our lives it disrupts our relationship with God. For example:

• A person may become so overwhelmed by grief, that they do not allow God an opportunity to work healing into their hearts. They remain bitter. They retreat from reality. They remain victims and blame others. 
• A person can be so occupied by the desire to have fun that they sacrifice their morals, opportunities for church, and godly relationships. 
• A person can buy things or hoard things to have a sense of self-satisfaction or pride instead of learning to be content.

Don’t get me wrong. Grief is real and it has its place. Joy is great and the Lord gives it to us (the joy of the Lord is our strength). Possessions such as a house/home, food, clothes, etc., are essential. These things become a problem for the Christian when they become more important than God’s presence in our lives, more important than godly counsel and more important than our will to do the things God has called us to do. 

Sisters and brothers, what Paul is saying is that all these things are temporal/temporary and will pass away but the Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever – He is eternal. He wants us to detach ourselves from things that have no heavenly value.

Trust his plan. Put the Lord first in your life, in your marriage/singleness, in your finances, in the rearing of your children and in your relationships with others. Ask God where he wants to start, and give him permission to begin in you/your situation. 

Prayer

Father God, thank you for today. Thank you for the love you give and the peace that you extend to us all. Lord, you know our hearts and our struggles. Lord, you know our strengths and our weaknesses. Lord, forgive us for the times when we put relationships, joy and possessions before our love for you. Lord, forgive us for our sins (known and unknown). Lord, we want to be pleasing to you in all of our ways. Lord, equip us with your wisdom and discernment so that we may be an example of you in our marriages or singleness. Lord, we want others to see you in us. Heal our brokenness from grief, betrayal and things that have happened in our past that we cannot change. Lord, teach us to love as you love and to forgive as you forgive. We no longer want to be trapped by the things the enemy desires to hang over our heads. Lord, set us free from the enemy’s schemes and let us find refuge in you alone. Lord, continue to transform us into the children of God that you created us to be.

Lord, we pray for those who are ill and we ask for healing. Lord, we pray for the children returning to school and we ask for you to keep them safe and protect them from harm. We pray for those who are grieving and ask for their hearts to be comforted. We pray for those who are struggling with mental health and we ask that you bring clarity to their thoughts and remove depression and feelings of despair. We pray for all the people suffering from the severe weather storms. Lord, restore power, keep people warm and feed. Protect those who need to go out in the weather for work, etc., and keep them safe. Lord, open up a housing opportunity for the family who has to be out of their rental home by this week.

In Jesus name we pray, amen.

Keep praying! Keep Trusting the Process! Keep believing!

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Bible Study

Each Thursday for the next 10 weeks we will meet via Zoom from 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. PST. We will be studying One in a Million written by Priscilla Shirer. Come join us. For more information or for the Zoom link send an email to:contactus@maryewhiteministries.com

Year End Contribution Statements 

A special thank you to those who contributed and supported this nonprofit ministry in 2025. Your contributions and in kind donations helped us to host three 12-week Bible studies, provide hygiene essentials and supplies to partner facilities, and have our annual retreat. We could not have accomplished what we did without your generosity. Year End Contribution Statements will be mailed/emailed in January 2026.

Board and Volunteer Meetings:

Here’s the schedule for our bi-monthly meetings, on the second Saturday of the month at 9:00 a.m.:

• March 14
• May 9
• July 11
• August 8
• October 10
• December 12

Do you have a prayer request? We would love to pray for you. 

Send your prayer request to: contactus@maryewhiteministries.com

Bible Reference: http://www.biblegateway.com

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