Whose Voice Do I Listen To?

Mark 10:1...crowds gathered around Him...and according to His custom, He once more began to teach them.

I am reading in the book of Mark right now and as I read this chapter (10) The Lord, in answer to the request I made in prayer to Him earlier, is speaking to me about  what He wants me to hear from Him.
Speaking to my heart, saying, " listen this is what I say".

The part of this passage that is most familiar to many of us, is when the Pharisees came up to Him and tested Him,  asked the question, "Whether it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife". They were trying to trick Him. He answered and said, "What did Moses command you?  They said, "Moses permitted (emphasis mine) a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away".

The next verse is where the Lord began speaking so clearly. "Because of your (emphasis mine) hardness of heart, he (Moses) wrote this commandment. The Lord says," But from the beginning of creation, God made them --MALE AND FEMALE (emphasis from my Bible)...AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH; so they are no longer two but one flesh."  That's what God says.

Now let me stop for a moment to say, this isn't a message about what is acceptable or unacceptable about divorce.  What I am sharing is what I hear God saying speaking to me.  The very next verse is the is the one the one that I want to make known.  "Therefore what God has joined together, let no man (my emphasis) separate."  The key here Beloved His voice says  The point is what, I, God have join together, let no man separate."

So what do you mean, Lord I asked?   He replies, "To whom are the couple making their "vows"? That's a good question, I replied . The Lord then continues gently,  "How have they been joined together?  By a vow to Me or a promise to each other, or a tradition set by  world?.  In their hearts, do they really know what they are vowing to, and to whom they are making their vow?"

I paused here thinking about the word vow, and  what a exchanging vows may mean when we marry today?   So first, I looked up the word vow in the dictionary. Three listings appeared.  The first defines a vow as: "a solemn promise or assertion, by which one person binds him/herself to an act, service, or condition".  The second states, "to make as a vow, to bind or consecrate" And the third, "a vow, declare."

Now I really stopped and pondered.  "So how does this all apply to what You want me to "hear" Lord Jesus? I asked.

"Beloved, what few seem to understand here, is that when anyone of  My children take a vow before Me, and then brakes it, they are committing "spiritually" adultery to Me.  It is not just the vow, it is who are they really making it to?  Marriage vows to Me, any vows to Me, are serious.  Not to be taken lightly."

I , myself, know when I am making a vow before God, I must be very clear as to whom I am making the promise.  So then if I brake it, I know to whom I am braking it also. God, my Father.

I feel in my heart, what the Lord is really saying here, is that vows are made too casually today, and for sometime now.  They have been misunderstood for what they really are. If we make a vow before the Lord God, then we are making a promise to Him which only He has the right to separate, not man!  The issue is  not as much what we vow, as it is to whom we vow.

Now some may say here,  what does she know?  She probably has everything in her marriage just perfect.  She can not know what I'm suffering.  I am here to say, oh yes I can.  I have over 40 years of marriage  behind me and there have been two specific times I have been faced with a decision about my marriage vows and what I promised to My Lord God when I said them. The first time, I didn't listen to God and suffered much within my soul and life afterward, because I did not hear His Word.  The second time I listened, even  though everything in my soul cried out,  "I can't Lord.  I can't."  That time I choose to look to Him first to listen to what He and to say and follow what He asked of me.  And I have never regretted that choice.

Walking in faith is not easy. Sometimes it is down right painful, especially when we are "deaf" to what God is saying about the subject ,or we feel He is silent, or even not involved at all, during  the situation. One of the  lessons I have learn for myself, through these times of pain--and trust me there have been, and still will be many -is Gods wonderful, loving, faithfulness, even in the most painful of challenges.

When I stop and listen, really listen, to what He says, He has and I know now, will guide me into His truth, by using His Word to speak to my heart.

How about you when was the last time you listened not only to what God says, but what you yourself have said in any vow you have taken.  Whom did you make it too?