Raisin Up a Godly Seed! - Godly Submission to Our Husbands

Raisin Up a Godly Seed!

Apr. 3, 2008

Godly Submission to Our Husbands

I shared a short 10 minute devotion in my ladies' bible study yesterday morning. I hope it will be a blessing to you.

The topic of submission is not one of the easy ones to embrace. It gets especially hard, for me, when I am in the flesh and afraid that if I totally trust God with this,
I will lose and my family will lose.
But that is a lie and the truth of God’s Word shows me otherwise.

Ladies, in this short 10 minutes I cannot go into the husband’s role in this, nor can I address those who are in difficult situations. But, women without husbands and widows, wherever I speak about husbands----just insert the Lord.

Hosea 1:16
In that day," declares the LORD, you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master’.

Two verses record the reason why God originally created Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 2:18
And the LORD God said, [It is] not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

1Cor 11:8-9
For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.

God made the woman, to join with her husband, to promote his interests, and be an encouragement to him.

Ephesians 5:31-33
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, (shall be joined unto in the gr. Cleave, the same cleave as in Matthew 19:5 ‘cleaving to his wife’) and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Christ cleaves (gr. Stretched out after) to the Church by cleansing her, protecting her and providing for her. Providing a way for her to be joined with Him.

Remembering that Christ and the church are a parallel to the husband and wife relationship---the husband does not conform to the wife’s plans, does not conform to her hopes or dreams---but he desires the wife to be one with him in his life, in his hopes and in his dreams.

As Christ died for the church, giving up His life for her – in order to bring her to himself—in the same way, we join ourselves to our husbands in order that we become a woman that God intended us to be—fulfilling God’s plan.

The following quote from a devotional would be ridiculed by modern philosophy today. In fact, it is a total mind-shift from my own way of thinking. But thinking this way helps us to do it this way.

“On their wedding day the husband gives up his life for her by taking on the responsibility of daily providing for her physical and spiritual needs. She gives up nothing. She has gained the opportunity to be the woman God has made her to be. When she gets married, her life becomes the life of her husband and she gains an intimate relationship and spiritual protection; she gains a teacher, a guide, and has her physical needs met. We should live our lives for our husbands out of gratitude for all he have given and continually give to us. We should be abandoned to our husbands in the same way that we are abandoned to Christ. When we belong to our husbands we are able to become one with them.”

How do we live this out in daily life?

Genesis 3:16
and thy desire (gr. A stretching out after) [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

For example, you might ask your husband, "What do you think this scripture verse means?; Do you want me to work? Should I teach Sunday school?" “What kind of clothes do you like me to wear, length and color of hair he would like you to have”; etc. What scent of perfume does he like? We should pray for our husband. Ask him questions; listen to him; and receive his answers into your heart and mind and enthusiastically embrace them. When studying the Bible, we should meditate on what our husband has told us and apply it to our life. We should thank him for caring for us physically and for protecting us spiritually. We should thank him for teaching and guiding us and keeping us from deception. We should thank him for everything; and tell him how much we admire him, appreciate him, and prize him.

Have shoulder to shoulder time. (Whenever your husband is doing something that you don't particularly like but you are sitting there with him or watching him do it. i.e., while he watches the football game, you are sitting next to him on the couch with your laptop/magazine/cookbook/weekly menu chart/homeschool book, etc.) :o)

(one sermon I read quoted Genesis 2:24 this way:

for this reason, a person shall leave father and mother, and he will unite himself with an intimate andpermanent connection to his wife; and the two will unite, even unto one soul)

This may sound narrow and inhibiting---But-- seeking to keep our own life, in resistance to what God has our husbands’ leading for us to be--will be a waste of our life. But--If we seek to follow God’s Word, and live out the life that God has planned for us as a “helpmeet” to our husbands, we will be following God’s rule which is what produces the real freedom.

Ephesians 5:33
Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife [see] that she reverence [her] husband.

Fixing our husband’s mistakes in order to rescue them shows them nothing but disrespect. In fact, it is really just our selfish pride that wants ourselves to look good.

Since men interpret criticism as contempt and they view contempt as disrespect, the more we cry, “I need your love”(and we do this by mis-interpreting our husband’s motives), the more we talk-talk-talk out our problems (instead of taking them to the cross), the more we complain and vent--- the more he feels contempt and disrespect from us because he doesn’t see our heart—he is only hearing our words.

Susannah Spurgeon called her husband Tirshatha (a title used of the Judean governor under the Persian empire), meaning "Your Excellency."

Charles Haddon Spurgeon made this tribute to his wife,

She delights in her husband; in his person, his character, his affection. To her he is not only the chief and the foremost of mankind, but in her eyes he is all in all. Her heart's love belongs to him, and to him only. He is her little world, her paradise, her choice treasure. She is glad to sink her individuality in him. She seeks no renown for herself. His honour is reflected upon her and she rejoices in it. She will defend his name with her dying breath. Safe enough is he where she can speak for him. His smiling gratitude is all the reward she seeks. Even in her dress she thinks of him and considers nothing beautiful which is distasteful to him. He has many objects in life, some of which she does not quite understand, but she believes them all and anything she can do to promote them she delights to perform. Such a wife as a true spouse, realises the model marriage relation and sets forth what our oneness with the Lord ought to be.

And to quote John MacArthur:
Boy, what a joy to be married to someone like that. You wonder why he was the "Man of God" that he was--he had some tremendous support.

And so it is that God has said, "You want your church powerful in the world? This how you are to live."
lovinthosebunnies4Him
Raisin Up A Godly Seed