+Living Life God's Way+ 9/2/2005 http://livinglifegodsway.com Let us submit steadfastly to the Divine will, fully convinced it will be for our good, for he does all things well. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart __________________________________________________ The Problem With Self Let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Ephesians 5:33 Selfishness is the secret to an unhappy marriage. Too often people enter into marriage saying, "I want my way." The husband says, "You do what I say." And the wife says, "I want my way." Because of selfishness, couples riddle their marriage with friction. It all comes down to self. Selfishness is the root of many unhappy marriages today. Today, there are marriages dissolving because each partner is trying to "find themselves." Listen, husbands and wives! If you want to find yourself, you need to lose yourself. Remember what Jesus said, "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it" (Matthew 10"39). If you want to find yourself and have a biblical marriage, here is the secret. Stop thinking about yourself and go into your marriage saying, "I want to love, please, and help my mate. I want to care about my spouse more than I care about myself." This is biblical. Before Paul ever says in Ephesians 5:22, "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord;" before he ever says in verse 25, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her," Paul says in verse 21, "Submit one to another in reverence to God." That word submit means, "to place or arrange under" and contains a "component of voluntary submission." Paul is saying to place voluntarily your needs under the needs of your spouse. Your spouse comes first. If you will do this, here is the great secret. You will have your own needs met in time, because you will be in God's order. And your spouse will be too. Harvest Daily devotional; 12/15/2004
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