What I Learned When My Marriage Hit Rock Bottom
Krista Ortiz
Sobbing on the bathroom floor that night I was certain: My marriage was over, God was looking down on me, and He didn’t care.
Lies had surfaced and betrayals had been exposed, leaving my heart and my vows beyond repair.
But when my life had derailed into a horrific nightmare, God used my darkest days to teach me more about who He is and how He will always come through for me and my marriage.
3 Things I Learned When My Marriage Hit Rock Bottom
1. God will fight for you.
My first instinct was to leave — to run far from the man who broke my heart and severed all trust.
But Exodus 14:13-14 it says, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today… the Lord will fight for you; you need only be still.”
God sees the hopelessness in our marriage, and yet He tells us not to be afraid. Instead we are asked to stand firm when we’re on the verge of giving up and stand still when we feel like fleeing in fear, because the Lord promises to fight for us. We need only be still.
2. With God, the outcome can be different.
I was certain I had exhausted all known options to save my marriage.
Then I read the story of a fisherman named Simon Peter, who like me was disheartened after working all night with nothing to show for it. Jesus then asked Simon Peter to do the unthinkable: Get back in the boat and try again.
Simon didn’t understand why Jesus would ask him to keep doing what was obviously not working but he gave it another chance, not because Simon trusted his own ability but because he trusted Jesus. In Luke 5:6, the Bible says, “…they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.”
As I read, I felt the Lord pressing into me, “Give your marriage another chance. Not because you trust your husband, but because you trust me!”
Sometimes God asks us to do the same thing we’ve been doing to no avail, because with Jesus the results are dramatically different. If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, you can start one today.
3. God’s deliverance is on it’s way.
God knew the hurts from our past would be so paralyzing, it would stifle all hope we had for the future. And that, at times, we would struggle to see Him working in our lives and in our marriage.
In Isaiah 43:19, the Lord says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the wastelands.”
God sees the devastation left in the wake of our past and the perilous journey awaiting our future. At every turn, God is working to make a way through the wasteland we can make of our marriages and our hearts. Our gravest danger is giving up before His deliverance unfolds.
God sees the darkest days of your marriage, and He will rescue you wherever He finds you today…Even if it’s rock bottom on the bathroom floor.