…and the wife see that she reverence her husband. ~ Ephesians 5:33b
The message today is geared toward the ladies and we are going to talk about reverence or as some other translations in the Bible say…Respect.
Last night in church during part of the speakers’ message, she was talking about respecting her husband, and how she had to learn to do that. She was recounting a story about how her husband worked outside of the home and how she was home schooling, taking care of the kids and the house, etc and as her kids started to get a little older they became a little unruly and she tried disciplining her children, but it wasn’t really working. So she went to her husband and told him what was going on and he told her, “Let me discipline the children.” But she proceeded to tell him no she had to be the one to discipline them because she was the one with them all the time, and he wasn’t with them that often, so she needed to handle it. She said she stated her case down to the T and it was reasonable so she wasn’t going to give up her stance on the situation. One day she was talking to the Pastor and she told him what was going on, and what her husband had said to her, and the Pastor was saying “Well I…” and she said she cut him off, and kept stating her point. Later that evening she was replaying the conversation with the Pastor over in her head and she realized that the Pastor was going to finish that statement with “Well I agree with him.” And then the Holy Spirit asked her, “Would you talk to your Pastor like you talked to your husband?” And she said, “No of course I wouldn’t.” Now before this moment, she thought that she had respected her husband, she wasn’t nasty to him, she supported him, she loved him, but the scripture doesn’t say we are to love our husbands (why because this comes natural to us, God didn’t have to command us to do it because it is a part of who we are), it says we are to see that we reverence, or respect, our husbands (something that doesn’t quite come as natural to us). Let’s take a look at the meaning of the word reverence…
Reverence (Greek-Phobeō): to reverence, venerate (to regard with respect), to treat with deference (A yielding in opinion; submission of judgment to the opinion or judgment of another) or reverential obedience.
Recently I had been asking God to work on me and in me, helping me to become the best person and wife I could be, and believe me God will give you what you ask for! So when I heard this message last night the Holy Spirit revealed to me this was something I needed to work on. Just as with the speaker, not that I am mean or nasty to my husband, but that I needed to work on yielding to him more. The Holy Spirit said to me “Let Daryle be himself, let him make the decisions and even if it looks wrong to you, or you know a better way, let him do it any way, this is how you will show him, that you respect him.”
For me as well as I am sure for many of you ladies out there this is not that easy. We women have a certain way we like things done, we have step by step plans, we logically think ahead and plan ahead, we have mothering instincts so sometimes we think we know what is best for our children, etc. I could go on and on. But God is speaking to us today and saying to let our husbands be our husbands, let them make decisions concerning the family, even if they are out there in the working world and we are at home with the kids. Let them do things the way they desire. There are many examples, I’m sure you each have your own. As wives we have to let go of some of that control, kick pride to the curb and begin to trust and reverence our husbands the way God intended.
One last note, I know all of you ladies out there are like, “But what about the first part of the scripture that says for husbands to love their wives!” Yes ladies it is true, the first part of the scripture does say that, but let me tell you what God told me to let you all know concerning that. He said we are not to try to manipulate our husbands to get love. We are not to focus on that, we are to seek our true love from God. What we are to focus on is respecting our husbands, and when we honor God by walking according to His Word, and seeking His love first, then He will honor us, and we will begin to see our husbands show us love.
I pray this has been a blessing!
Tracy Houston
Kingdom Vizion Ministries
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