God has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. (Ps. 45:7)\
ON February 3, Roxene and I celebrated our thirty-ninth anniversary. Who would have thought this possible? If you had known us early in our marriage, you would have wondered if our marriage would last. When we got married, I was young and immature. Because I come from a dysfunctional family, I brought a lot of baggage into our marriage. Often Roxy became the recipient of my anger and frustrations. By the second year, I was ready to give up on marriage. Our marriage was more like a battle cry than a wedding song of love.
At a holiness camp in Montana, I heard the message of holiness and about how we can invite the Holy Spirit into our lives. The evangelist shared that when the Bible talks about being anointed with oil, it is talking about being anointed by the Holy Spirit. He said that we often talk about preachers needing God’s anointing to preach, but the reality is that God’s anointing is needed in every area of our lives—even our marriages. When the invitation was given, I rushed to the altar and prayed for the Holy Spirit to fill me. I told God that I wanted a marriage that was pleasing to Him.
So how did Roxy and I make it to our thirty-ninth anniversary? It was a result of the Holy Spirit’s working in our lives.
Allow the Holy Spirit to make a difference in your life.
Jim “Umfundisi” Lo is the author of Connect with God: The Purpose of Prayer(WPH).
