As a pastor, one thing I get to do by the privilege of my office is counselling.

As the years go by, I counsel more and more people and hear stranger and stranger cases. One day, I was having a conversation with a church member about a personal traumatic experience they had.

Just as she narrated the story, I didn’t know when I blurted out, “If you didn’t say this to me, I would never have known that you experienced such a thing.”

I concluded that every human being is walking around with memories you cannot imagine unless they tell you.

We should not imagine that life has been a smooth ride for everyone; that the our neighbours come from a family just like ours or that people don’t have prayer requests because they don’t look like it.

One thing that someone around you- a brother or sister in the faith- might be experiencing is a broken home or broken relationships in their family.

We’ve already established the importance of families to God.

It was through one family, one generation, that God’s eternal plan relied on to bless the earth.

It was one family He gave dominion to subdue and multiply the earth first in Adam and Eve, then again in Noah.

The family structure has always been central to God’s plan to fill the earth.

But here’s the truth we must face; where God builds, the devil seeks to destroy.

The devil’s strategy has always been and still is division. Since time immemorial, that has been from the beginning. In Genesis 3, we see him in Eden, sowing doubt and discord between Adam and Eve, and between them and God.

Genesis 3:1-5
New King James Version
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;

3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'”

4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”



He put doubt in the mind of the woman about the word of God.

That one act of division fractured their unity, and the fallout echoed through humanity even till this day, we reap the harvest of those seeds of doubt that yielded disobedience, sin and division in our world today.



In the New Testament, we’re cautioned:

1 Peter 5:8-9
New King James Version
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

Not every broken relationship is caused by the devil but the devil can sure take advantage of broken relationships for his will. This is how he devours. All he needs is a foothold to wreck our relationships and homes.

He does this through the most simple yet foundational ways. Often through anger that festers, unforgiveness that hardens, and pride that builds walls.

And so Paul warns the church,

Ephesians 4:26-27
New King James Version
26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,

27 nor give place to the devil.

Meaning you can give place to the devil through anger. Broken relationships, and unresolved hurts become a foothold, a crack in the door where the enemy slips in to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).

A fractured family or a severed friendship isn’t just a personal pain. As Believers who understand the vital role our relationships and family play in the grand scheme of God’s plan, strained relationships and dysfunctional homes go beyond emotional pain, it’s a spiritual battleground.

When a husband and wife turn against each other, when a parent and child aren’t on speaking terms or when brothers drift apart over bitterness, the devil gains ground and he does so fast.

In addition to careful methods of amicable conflict resolution, a sure way we can respond to this is to handle this spiritually as well. It is to this end that the prayer focus of our fast today is to pray for every broken home and broken family relationship. That there is reconciliation and restoration beginning today.

And no, you do not have to have a broken home to pray this prayer. Pray for other people.

We would be praying for reconciliation and restoration that in cases where the better alternative is for both parties to go their separate ways we would be praying that the devil would not take advantage of the situation to get a foothold in that family.

For homes that are already broken beyond repair, God keeps the fruits of that marriage- the children and the people involved are kept from falling into the hand of satan.

If you know a specific family, name them. If not pray for every family associated with this ministry.

With love,

Pastor Michael Ipaye.