From Dream to Deliverance
Thursday, September 16, 2004
My Prayer Today
Heavenly Father, Thank You for being so clear when it comes to guiding us in our family relationships. I praise You for showing us that when we put You first and the treat each other with love and respect that we are actually modeling the relationship that Jesus has with His “bride,” the church. I pray that You will fill me with Your Holy Spirit right now that I may glorify You in my thoughts, words and actions. Give me courage to be a bold witness to the saving love of Jesus in my life, and give me open doors to share the Good News with others as I go about my daily activities. Thank You for being my Heavenly Father, for showing me what no earthly parent ever could—total, unconditional love and acceptance, and thank You for forgiving me when I fall short of living up to that great gift in my life. I confess to You that I don’t always live as I ought to live, but You always welcome me back when I turn from my sins and back to You. Thank You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
God's Word For Me Today
Ephesians 5:21-28a; 6:1-4
21And further, you will submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22You wives will submit to your husbands as you do to the Lord. 23For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of his body, the church; he gave his life to be her Savior. 24As the church submits to Christ, so you wives must submit to your husbands in everything.
25And you husbands must love your wives with the same love Christ showed the church. He gave up his life for her 26to make her holy and clean, washed by baptism and God’s word. 27He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies.
1Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. 2“Honor your father and mother.” This is the first of the Ten Commandments that ends with a promise. 3And this is the promise: If you honor your father and mother, “you will live a long life, full of blessing.”
4And now a word to you fathers. Don’t make your children angry by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction approved by the Lord.
Reflecting on God’s Word
What is the most important message you receive from this Scripture?
Thoughts...Wives, Submit to Your Husbands - Revisited...
As a man, it is impossible for me to know what it must feel like to be a wife and to hear the words, “You wives, will submit to your husbands as you do to the Lord.” I can only imagine wives saying, “If my husband was like Jesus, then I would submit to him.” Or “The Apostle Paul obviously never met my husband.” Or simply, “That’s not fair.” The reality is Paul undoubtedly knew a lot of husbands and he didn’t give the command as a result of how wonderful they were, or how much they deserved to have their wives submit to them. Paul gave the command because he was divinely guided by Jesus to give it! That’s a bold statement, but if we believe that the Bible is the word of God, and that the authors were divinely inspired to wrote what they wrote, then Jesus told Paul to write, “You wives, will submit to your husbands as you do to the Lord.” That’s what I believe. Therefore, wives ARE to submit to their husbands as to the Lord—period. As far as I can see there is only one exception to that—if a husband would command or do something that contradicts the revealed will of God, a wife could not be expected to obey the command or submit to the behavior. For example, if the husband was to say, “I want you to lie for me when my boss calls today. Tell him that I couldn’t be at work, because I hurt my back.” In such a case, a wife would be compelled by her first allegiance to God not to do such a thing. If a husband is abusive to his wife, then for a wife to “submit” to that is going beyond Paul’s command.
The reality is, though, that most husbands aren’t abusing their wives, and most husbands aren’t asking their wives to lie to bosses. Most husbands may not be models husbands, but most would become much more like Jesus, if their wives would show them more attention, affirmation and affection. I didn’t get that last statement from the Bible (directly) or from divine revelation, but from Dr. Laura Schlesinger’s new book, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands. The book is causing quite an uproar in the marketplace, because it takes a strong stance against the past forty years of “radical feminism” in America. Dr. Laura believes that most of the fault for bad marriages lies with wives who are not willing to affirm, to show attention and to be affectionate toward their husbands. (This sounds an awful lot like “submitting” to husbands to me.) Her basic premise is that husbands are basically simple creatures who respond well to love and respect, but the culture around us teaches wives to “bash” their husbands and to blame them for all of life’s problems. As a man reading Dr. Laura’s book, I couldn’t help thinking, “She’s right on, but if a man said these things they would crucify him.” Apparently, a lot of feminist wouldn’t mind crucifying Dr. Laura right now, but her points while not specifically Christian, certainly make it clear that wives can do a great deal to see that the dream of a healthy, happy and whole marriage moves through the delays, difficulties and dead-ends to deliverance. The key matter is for the wife to decide that obeying God’s command to submit to her husband as to the Lord, is a command that must be taken seriously.
If you have read this far, and you are a wife you may be upset with me by now, and I would understand that, but please make sure to read tomorrow’s installment, as I will revisit the husband’s command to love our wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. The reality is that husbands and wives are responsible for seeing God’s dream for their families become a reality. Only as they work together, putting God and His commands first will marriages and families become what God has planned, and that IS God’s plan. So, let’s try it knowing that God’s plans always work in the end!