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Help! I Need More of God

Help! I Need More of God

JANUARY 28, 2021

/ Articles / Help! I Need More of God

by Jani Ortlund

Some people expect the pastor’s wife to have the most ideal and perfect relationship with God. After all, she lives with the pastor and has ready access to help for any questions or problems that arise, right?

Ah, now that’s a laugh! We all know that a pastor’s schedule, his energy level, and his own personal needs prevent a pastor’s wife from relying solely on her husband to feed her spiritually.

What should we—women married to men in ministry—do to stay spiritually radiant? How can God’s redeeming love fill our hearts in such a way that we begin to live outside our own needs, gladly giving ourselves to his eternal purposes in our marriage and family, our church and community?

Feeding Your Soul

One way—I believe the most important way—is to spend time daily with our Redeemer. Meeting regularly with Jesus is necessary if we want to enjoy and support vibrant spiritual health. Just as physical food feeds our bodies the Bible is food for our souls.

We need time every day in the word; otherwise, our souls will stagnate and settle into a malnourished subsistence that slowly starts to feel normal. If we are not feeding our hearts and minds with eternal, heavenly food, our souls will shrink for lack of nourishment.

Think of all we feed our bodies and minds. Think of the time you spent just this past week on food shopping and meal prepping, on eating and cleaning up, on working, on housekeeping and child minding, on reading and surfing the Internet, on exercising and watching TV and playing games on your phone. Now compare that to the time you spent in nearness to God through prayer and Bible study, meditation and memorization. It’s not easy, is it? There is so much we must do in this life, along with all we want to do!

But in order to support our husband in meaningful ways, we need to be supported ourselves with an all-powerful heavenly support. We need daily refreshment and encouragement from which we can draw as we seek to love our pastor well. The best and most satisfying way to get that refreshment is by going deep into God’s word in study and meditation and spending regular time in prayer. We need to feast on the abundance of his house and let him give us drink from his river of delights (Psalm 36:8).

What things are precious to you? Is God’s love precious to you? Can you say with David, “How precious is your steadfast love, O God!” (Psalm 36:7)? Maybe you feel far from God’s love these days. Ask him to reignite and increase your love for him as you read this chapter. “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” (Psalm 85:6).

David tells us that God’s love is steadfast. What does that mean? It means that God’s precious love is constant and steady. It can be depended upon. It is unfailing. His love never falters. He fixes his love upon us with clear, unchangeable intent.

We can count on God’s love. Human love is very fragile, as many of us know from personal experience. Some of us have been deeply hurt by people we thought we could love and trust who in the end proved unfaithful. But God’s love will never falter or waver.

The Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations. (Psalm 100:5)

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22–23)

Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. ( Joel 2:13)

Make sure you catch our interview with Jani Ortlund by clicking here!

Content taken from Help! I’m Married to My Pastor by Jani Ortlund, ©2021. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, crossway.org.

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