As the president of Proverbs 31 Ministries, Lysa TerKeurst has made a name for herself as a role model for godly women and a champion for strong marriages. Thus, many of her loyal followers were startled at the divorce announcement she posted on her blog last June.
“I so wish we were sitting face-to-face so you could see my tears and hear the deep grief in my voice as I share this with you,” Lysa opened in the soul-baring entry titled “Rejection, Heartache, and a Faithful God.”
She cited her husband Art’s repeated infidelity and substance abuse for the demise of their nearly 25-year marriage:
“My husband, life partner and father of my children, Art TerKeurst, has been repeatedly unfaithful to me with a woman he met online, bringing an end to our marriage of almost 25 years. For the past couple of years, his life has sadly been defined by his affection for this other woman and substance abuse. I don’t share this to harm or embarrass him, but to help explain why I have decided to separate from him and pursue a divorce.”
After facing what she has called the “hardest battle of [her] life” to save her marriage over the last couple of years, Lysa shared that God revealed she has done all she can and “must release him to the Savior.”
Though tempted to take the startling blow as [a] personal failure, the prolific author and speaker decided to put into practice what she preaches through surrender and trusting that God’s redemptive ways are higher.
Lysa admittedly “pondered giving up,” but after much fasting, prayer and wise counsel, she instead resolved “not to let darkness win here.”
“I’d simply ask you to pray,” she petitioned. “Pray for my precious children and grandchildren. Pray for me. Pray for our team at Proverbs 31. And yes, please, please pray for Art.”
Well, as of yesterday, those prayers have been miraculously answered, and a once broken marriage and family have been restored. Lysa announced on Instagram that she and Art renewed vows after their separation “on an unusually sunny Tuesday in December.”
“We dressed up a bit and whispered healing words, [heartfelt] promises, and holy vows,” she continued. “A million prayers. A miracle answer. A marriage restored.”
In a follow-up post today, Lysa poured her heart out about how God’s plan of redemption looked NOTHING like her own, but it was more perfect than she ever could have imagined.
“Never doubt we serve a God who still does miracles,” she wrote. “In the middle of the work He did from the devastation in my marriage nothing looked like I hoped and everything felt impossible. I prayed a million suggestions to God that never ever came to be. And the number of tears shed in the process about leaked the life out of me. But all the while when I saw nothing, God was doing something. And in His way and His timing, new life came.”
In witnessing her own miracle manifest in a way that was so much different than what she pictured, the Proverbs 31 president encouraged others to rest in the hope that no matter how far-fetched your prayer may seem, God is working:
“No matter how impossible that miracle you are praying for seems, please trust that only God knows the full story. He is working. He is hearing and shifting and intervening and convicting and stirring and doing what only He can do. God does some of His best work in the unseen.”
Lysa’s recently renewed marriage reflects the prophetic words of her daughter Ashley, who opened up about the devastation that her dad brought to their family in Sadie Robertson’s Live Original blog last year.
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“Where there is impossible pain, God always offers incredible power,” wrote Ashley, adding, “My tears will turn into a victory for the cause of Christ.”
And lo and behold, just over a year later, that victory has been realized and those tears have been wiped away.
Please join us in praying that God will be glorified through the restoration of Lysa and Art’s marriage and that their story will bring hope and encouragement to others in need of their own victory!
