Yesterday was one of those days where when you lay down your head at night you wonder how everything was accomplished. There was one point where I just thought I would die if I didn't lay down yet the Lord gave me the opportunity to be called to the hospital to minister. As I think back on the day, I know the Lord was the One in control and blessed us as we worked together to get things accomplished.
I woke up with the intense desire to reads Ephesians 5….the key verse is 21...
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy,cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Paul didn't write these instructions on marriage just as a suggestion. He wrote them to lay out the way a married couple should live. The most important concept is that we are to love each other as Christ loved the church. Wow…to think about that kind of love blows me away. That means I need to not only love my husband but first I must love myself. It also means I need to serve my husband and he needs to serve me. No, that doesn't mean either of us are to be a doormat. But rather it means that we are to be ready and willing to give up on what we want to do and do what the other one wants to do.
Yesterday as I was helping clean the garage I had a phone call in which I was asked, "Why are you doing that?" My response was, "When we finish the garage, then we will go work inside." That's how life is at our house. We work together to get whatever needs accomplished done. Did I enjoy working in the garage? Yes, because it made my husband happy. It can't always be about what I want.
That's where people get in trouble in their marriage. They won't compromise. They won't give up what they want for what their spouse wants. I would never do anything the Lord didn't direct me to do. He is the One to guide my steps each and every day. I know I am blessed my having a husband who follows the same type of life. My prayers are for more husbands to do so. I am blessed in knowing I serve a husband who serves the Lord.
This morning I am praying for many marriages in turmoil...
- the wives with unbelieving husbands
- the one who is in the circumstance of her husband forbidding her to come to church
- the husband who is dealing with his wife not putting the Lord first
- the husband who is put down by his wife in front of the children
- the couple who are separated and need to talk
- the couple who are dealing with infertility
- the couple dealing with major physical health issues
- the couple who are healing from infidelity
- the wife who has left her husband
- the couple dealing with drug issues
- the couple who struggle with the wife allowing the husband to be the head of the house
Dear Jesus,
I bring these ones to You this morning and ask a blessing upon each circumstance. I pray for someone to be put in their lives who will say something to make a difference. Lord, I pray these marriages would be saved. I pray each and every one would have the desire in their heart to love their spouse as You loved the church. I pray they would have the desire in their heart to be servants to one another. Thank You Jesus for my husband. Thank You for loving me enough to bless me with him. Lord, strengthen our marriage. Forgive us when we get crabby with one another. Remind us of how to love one another when the busyness of life gets in the way. Thank You Jesus for being The One To Bless Me. Amen.
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