Misunderstood

Love you all, praying for you, 
 
I just love God’s Word, it gives good advice.  Really good.  Those who heed it prosper, those who don’t suffer loss, sometimes everything.   I was thinking about something that God taught us years ago, prompted by a recent conversation with a trusted friend, who reminded me, and pushed the envelope.  What is perhaps the most misunderstood word or concept in this generation?  It might be the word,  submission.   God said we are to submit to Him, His Word, His plan, His way.  It’s really the indication of any follower of Christ.  If you don’t submit, come under His mission for you, then you’re not a follower of Christ, just a pretender.  God said we are to submit to those in authority over us, even whether they are nice or harsh.  Here’s a very familiar one, God said, Wives submit to your husbands.  And that’s where all ‘you know what’ breaks loose.  All kinds of confusion, everybody feelin some kinda way.  Most likely because we don’t understand God’s way, only man’s way.  Why is that command so familiar?  When it’s not even the most important marriage command.  Not even the most important submission command that pertains to marriage? Because it’s the one repeated most often.   Any man that says you need to submit to him… is an idiot, don’t marry him.  He doesn’t know what He’s talking about, and probably doesn’t even know what it really means.  Most men who say wives need to submit to their husbands, really mean, “you need to do what I want to do, or what I want you to do.”  Neither, was the meaning of that command, nor God’s design for marriage.  First things first, who was God talking to? “Wives, submit to your husbands.”  He was talking to the wife!  He started the sentence with “Wives”-  there’s your clue.  Husbands, that ain’t your business.  You do you.  Let God handle her.  She doesn’t have to obey God if she doesn’t want to.  What will you do?  Will you obey?  God said, Husbands love your wives.  God said lay down your life for your wife, as Jesus laid down his life for you! and God said, “Submit to one another in love.”  That means prefer each other above yourself, their feelings, their needs, even their understanding, and counsel, and belief.  Submission, is coming under another’s mission (God’s), coming under authority, in humility, coming under, so God can bring you over.  This is the greater marriage command, even than wives submit to your husbands.  “Submit yourselves one to one another.”  This is addressed to the body of Christ, so certainly applies to husband and wife.  Most people will be married longer then they are single, if you get married by age fifty.  And you probably shouldn’t even count the first twenty years, cause that’s childhood.  Submit yourselves to one another, husbands, submit to your wives as well as wives submit to your husbands, in the LORD.  What does that mean? ‘in the LORD?’  It means in the will of the LORD.  Not submit to what one of you wants to do, or what the other of you wants to do.  Then it’s just a fight, or a ledger, “We did it your way last time, we get to do it my way this time.’  That just means you were wrong both times.  God’s design for marriage is not what he wants to do, or what she wants to do.  What does God want you to do? How does He want you to do it, and how does He want you to treat each other in the doing of it.  Submit to God, by submitting to one another, in it.   Seek the LORD for it, seek His will together.  Submit to one another and in doing so, prefer them over yourself.  Ask God, and He will clearly reveal His way to you, and bring unity between both of you.  Humble yourself.  Don’t fix them, fix you.  God can handle them.  Submission is powerful.  My wife understands submission.  And it makes me extremely nervous.  “Honey, whatever you decide, I will support you.”  But I know she doesn’t agree, and it just made me nervous.  So I give her the side eye.  What do you mean?  “I don’t agree, but whatever you choose, I will support you in it.”  “So what is it that you don’t agree with again?”  She just told me, but I wasn’t listening, because I couldn’t hear past my own opinion.”  So she tells me again, and finally, I listen…  “So we should probably wait on that?  “Yeah probably.”  Submission is powerful.  If we’re not in agreement, sometimes it’s because God gave you a wife that sees what you can’t see, whether she can fully explain it to your satisfaction or not.  And for wives, the responsibility of being the assistant Holy Spirit for this man, is a big one.  The neck turns the head, (that’s not the Bible, that’s just someone’s observation of what influence can do).  So what kind of neck will you be?  The one God uses, or the one that confuses.  Wives if you’re not submitting yourself to God, through your husband, than you’re lobbying for your opinion, that’s not what a mature neck does.  If you get caught up in your own opinion, that’s not worth much more than his?  Husbands be careful, some wives are unleadable, they do their own thing, their own way.  Don’t marry that one, it will be a never ending nightmare.   What does God want for both of you in this decision or situation?  Build each other up – is a start.  Don’t make decisions if you’re not in agreement, don’t be hasty and miss the way, and don’t wait when God’s telling you to move.  God’s will always aligns with His Word, and God’s command to get a multitude of counsel can help.  Seek it together.  But wives, or wives to be… other than God you are the number one counselor of your husband.  God said humility and the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.  You need to get some, so you can give some, your husband is depending on it.  Praying that you will submit to God first, those in authority over you, and submit to one another in love, so that together you can understand and submit to His will and His way for you.  It is so worth it, there are no words to describe.  There is power and beauty in submission.  The world doesn’t think so.  But what do they know.  Choose God’s wisdom over the other kind.  The results are polar opposites.  Praying that you will learn the beauty of submission.  Not one person’s job, everyone’s job.
 
Love you all,
dad