I was 25 when I got married. My husband and I had much to learn about how to improve our marriage. We were doing badly financially, and it was frustrating.
The struggle for balance lingered longer than we envisaged, and at some point, we began to have doubts about our union. But we kept praying and encouraging each other.
We were Christians who were committed to the things of God. Still, there were times when I wondered why God would allow us to face such challenges since we were serving him faithfully.
During a church service last year, my pastor called me out. He said that he had a prophecy from God that would change our lives. I was eager to hear it, hoping that this was the good news that we had been anticipating.
He said, ‘You have to die and be buried for your husband to prosper’. He said that my husband would never succeed as long as I was alive.
It was the last thing I expected to hear. I stood transfixed and overwhelmed with tears while he kept talking. Many thoughts ran through my mind. How could the God we had served faithfully want me dead? Why did God allow the union in the first place only to turn us against each other?
The aftermath of the Prophecy
For several nights, I was unable to sleep because I was scared that my husband would kill me out of desperation to fulfil the prophecy. I couldn’t pray as I had started losing faith in God. I considered leaving the marriage out of fear. We had suffered a lot, and I worried that the frustration and that ‘prophesy’ could trigger insane thoughts in my husband’s head.
My husband sensed my fear and began to pray with me. Gradually, the fear faded. For the first time, I understood why some people would just stop going to church. The experience almost made me doubt God, but I had seen His power at work in many ways to let one incident come between us.
With my husband’s help, I re-committed myself to God. We found a new place of worship. I began to see how questionable some things in my former church were. I’m grateful that my husband and I are still married. Every day, with God’s help, we see that we are not alone.