Matthew 19:8<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe said to them, \u2018Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.\u2019 \u201c<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This may sound very simplistic, but Jesus made it so. Divorce is the result of hardness of heart, which produces unforgiveness. In God\u2019s plan, the two are not supposed to be separated, and it\u2019s love and forgiveness that glues hearts together. Where love and forgiveness reign, hearts stay united despite offense. Yet, Moses allowed them occasionally to divorce because of their unforgiving hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Divorce is not God\u2019s will for any marriage. Divorce is an abnormal outcome from the experience of unforgiveness. We must seek God\u2019s heart nurturing that softens the heart and prevents it from hardening. With God\u2019s love and forgiveness firmly in our hearts, we will overcome the pain and trauma of marital disappointments. Without God, marriage is a burden and a load. Staying vitally connected to God\u2019s heart is the only insurance against the invitation of heart separation or physical divorce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLord, I need to stay connected to Your overflowing heart of warm love and fresh forgiveness. I cherish my marriage, and I know staying close to You is my only assurance of remaining in love with my spouse, despite all that could prove otherwise. Help me, Jesus. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Matthew 19:8 \u201cHe said to them, \u2018Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.\u2019 \u201c This may sound very simplistic, but Jesus made it so. Divorce is the result of hardness of heart, which produces unforgiveness. In God\u2019s plan, the two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-matthew"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Reflections-from-Matthew.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4142,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4140\/revisions\/4142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}