The women’s ministry of the Moscow Good News Church, directed by Pastor Denise Renner, recently hosted another marriage seminar just for wives in the church. Denise taught the women in attendance how to show honor and respect toward their husbands based on the inner-working of God’s Spirit in their own hearts instead of solely on the conduct of their husbands. Then she prayed over the women and their marriages. Based on the many written testimonies that poured in afterward, the results of this seminar were remarkable and life-changing.
We’d like to share four of these testimonies:
My husband is a former drug addict. His past influenced his ability to communicate. Because of my husband’s past, I did not have absolute confidence in our future.
We started our own business and began to work together. After some time, problems came in our business and then in our relationship. Our business did not allow us to divide work and home. Depression and despair came. I came to the MGNC seminars with the thought that if they didn’t help me, I would divorce my husband.
At the very first seminar, I heard a word that touched my heart. It was about receiving my husband just as he is. It wasn’t until the third seminar that I finally understood deeply what this meant, and it changed me.
I asked Pastor Denise what to do when my husband asks me too many questions (his questions made me feel that he didn’t trust me or as if I was incapable of doing something myself). She recommended that the next time he asked me a question, I should simply respond, “Thank you. Thank you for caring about me and asking about me.”
Well, I did it, and my husband was stupefied! My husband is very good man. He loves me, and I love him too. Our relationship is getting better and better every day. Now I feel like I am on my honeymoon. I don’t even notice when he questions me. And we finally agreed that it was time to have a baby. I no longer have the doubts I once had.
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I got married five years ago. I worked at church in the children’s ministry, and everyone said I wouldn’t find a husband because I worked a lot, plus the children’s ministry was not a place where I could find him. But we met in the children’s ministry, and it was such an ideal experience when we dated.
But everything changed after we married. We could not communicate in the right way, and our feelings became extinct. Our baby was born — and our marriage became even more of a trial. We drifted apart more and more. Then I physically began to be sick and even had to go to the hospital. I am 38 and had never been sick before!
I went to the seminars with one last hope that God would help me. I understood that I could not cope with my problems on my own. During the last seminar, after Pastor Denise finished ministering, we even could not stir! My eyes were closed, and God showed me that I had to forgive my father. I had no easy relationship with my father, and I did not want to communicate with him. As a Christian, I understood that I needed to honor my parents and love them, but it was not in my heart. I tried hard to do it, but it was just outward behavior. But God was doing something in my heart.
During that seminar, my husband was away on business, but when he came back, I saw another attitude toward me. He did things he had never done before, such as asking me how he could help me. Then he took me and our son to the park, and we spent the best time in my life together!
When Pastor Denise taught, I came to see my mistakes. But I did not even have time to change things drastically before my husband began to change. God’s grace just came and began to work in my heart and my husband’s heart.
I thank Pastor Denise for her prayers and for opening her heart and serving God and us through her own testimonies. It gave me encouragement, and I believe God will give me more strength to make even more changes in my heart and in my relationship with my husband in the future. When we gathered together as wives, there was a great support. It is difficult to overcome some things alone, but when we are together, we are strong.
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Pride, rivalry, and malice were inside me. My husband is a very good man. Most of our problems I created myself by nagging him. What did the seminars give me? Now I meet my husband at the door when he comes home, ask him how he is, and prepare good dinners for him. I try to pay more attention to him and to support him better. As a result, our child is more obedient with less talking back.
I also began to listen to my husband, and I am learning when to speak and when to keep silent. He really is my best advisor and friend. He understands me and sees right through me. He is the head of our home, but pride prevented me from doing things God’s way. These seminars gave me new direction so that I could move forward instead of staying stuck in one place in my life and my marriage.
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Pastor Denise set me free from the “responsibility” of changing my husband! This burden was on my shoulders many years, and I am happy to find that I do not need to do it! God is restoring everything; there is no irreparable situation with Him. He returned to me my husband’s love. When I came back home after the last seminar, my husband said he missed me very much. I am so thankful for Pastor Denise’s prayers.
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God is in the business of restoring lives, but He always begins His work in the heart of the individual. When we cultivate a humble, teachable attitude, His grace can abound in the darkest of circumstances and begin to turn things around that looked impossible and hopeless. He does this wherever He finds a willing heart, whether in a church in Russia or right where you are right now.