Staying Faithful While Being Married to an Unbeliever
Staying Faithful While Being Married to an Unbeliever
How to stay faithful while married to an unbeliever…
Most people will describe their life when they found salvation in Christ as a time full of excitement, joy, and hope.
My experience was anything but joyful.
You see, at the time that I was falling in love with my faith, my husband was bitterly walking away from his.
There were countless nights spent in tears. Harsh words freely thrown about. After four years of being together, we had reached what seemed like an insurmountable wall in our relationship.
Married to an Unbeliever
For over two years, the Enemy used every tactic available to try to destroy our marriage. But God kept urging me to just hold on. There were so many nights when the religious persecution in my own home cut so deep that I wanted to pack it up and call it quits.
Could I really spend the rest of my life with a man who hated my religion?
And how could I lead my children to Jesus in a home with a father who wanted them as far from church as he could get them?
It was in those darkest times when I literally could feel God’s arms around me promising me that His plan was greater than anything I could fathom. That gave me the strength to hold on.
The grace of a loving, merciful God that I barely knew and a God whom my husband openly denounced was the only saving force in our marriage.
The Turning Point
I slowly began to learn that I didn’t have to choose between God and my husband. That I could be faithful to both at the same time.
I turned my religion-based arguments with my husband into cries for God to show me how to respond lovingly to his concerns.
God began pouring truth into my heart. He made me see how I was going about ministering to my husband in all the wrong ways.
I began to see that my husband’s faith or lack thereof had nothing to do with me. It was between him and God and God simply needed me to move out of the way and let Him work.
I stopped focusing on all the things that my husband wasn’t, and started seeing the beauty in who he was.
I stopped reacting to challenges to my faith presented by my husband. Instead, I dug deeper into the Word, trusted God to provide answers, and in turn my faith was strengthened.
Staying Faithful
Through it all, I began to see God’s handiwork in my husband’s life. Suddenly he went from hating religion in all of its forms to becoming passionate about learning about the faith of others.
So much so that he spent a year of his life fully immersed in twelve different religious traditions. {For more information about his journey and our family life during his experience, please refer to his book: Project Conversion: 1 Man, 12 Faiths, 1 Year.} His life and our marriage will forever be changed by these experiences and all glory goes to God.
As I sit here and write today, I wish I could tell you that my husband I are no longer spiritually mismatched, but I can’t. We may never share a faith, and that is okay. I will do my best to lead him to Christ in the way in which I live my life, not by constantly preaching to him. If one day, he comes back to Christ, I will rejoice with the angels. However, if he doesn’t, I will know that I tried my best. I love him for who he is, not for who he will become.
Are You Married to an Unbeliever?
Are you involved in a spiritually mismatched marriage?
If so, please know that I am praying for you! It is most definitely not an easy road to walk, but God will supply you with all the strength you need.
Rely on Him.
He is faithful, and He has a plan for you and your marriage that does not involve divorce. Give it to Him, and let Him work.
Guest Author:
Heather Bowen is a dedicated, Christian homeschooling mom and wife from southeastern North Carolina. She entered the blogging world in June 2012 and quickly realized it was time to leave her nursing career behind and embrace the calling to be a work at home mom. Heather blogs about all things faith, family, and homeschooling at Life of a Homeschool Mom.
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