Five
years of covenant relationship, yes! Five years ago I made this rather radical
promise to this stranger (it was an arranged marriage). Promise to live together
in highs and lows, in wellness and sickness, until death do us apart. My only
trust was in my God who is faithful (arranged also by my God, I believe.).
Really some ups and downs, without His grace, we wouldn't celebrate today. Marriage
is a sharpest tool my Savior uses to rub my hardest edges. Sanctification we
call, and yes it is mostly done through marriage, I am convinced. My honest
confession is, this is the one place I miserably fail, but keep getting up,
walking holding the hands of my faithful God. Please don't mistaken me, my
husband is as sweet as he could be, as Lysa TerKeurst mentioned “Even a great
husband makes a very poor God". He couldn't fill all that I need, he is
not even equipped to do that.
As
I read my bible verse on my anniversary day, God spoke to me through these
verses,
“Wives,
in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands, for this is the way the
holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They
submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and
called him her lord.” 1 peter 3
I
was convicted, I knew in my heart it is right to obey my authority, and submit
to my husband. God has spoken to me in many different situations about this but
this time after I poured my heart and ask God to bless our marriage, in our
wedding anniversary day. This is what He says, “SUBMIT”. My arrogance to submission is a real problem. Knowing I
might fail many more times, I took a pledge and said, “Lord I will obey you, help
me Lord to see when I am not submitting, and give me grace so I will submit, I
don’t want to be the hindrance for our marriage being blessed”.
I
got ready and happily came down, I don’t know if it is a test from my Lord or a
trick from my enemy, my husband came down with the red pants and a very dark
shirt. Red is blood red pants. I asked God, “What am I supposed to do? Should I
let him go with this attire to church on our wedding anniversary? Should I let
him be the object for laugh? More than anything what will people think about
me?(how right James 4:1-2 is)” And I
said to myself, “Any way presenting my opinion is not un-submission it is just
a suggestion” I told him, “this attire looks so funny, do you really want to
wear this today?” He is very determined and said, YES. Ok, now my controlling
face came out, “Lord I will submit but not when he is crazy like this”. Then
Lord reminded me the later part of this verse, “Crazy, who could have a crazier
husband than Sarah? Just think, a husband wants to sacrifice the son (son born
after tremendous battle with infertility). Who could be crazier than that? But
she still submitted to his will. Why you can’t just let him wear what he wants,
it is not even submitting, but just not controlling.”
The context here is Lord can take our
submission and use it for his glory, He can use it as a means to bless our
marriage. I don’t believe in sacrificing children, and I don’t encourage you to
obey your husband when he is causing any harm to you or your children. Abraham had
a very direct revelation, God indeed spoke to him directly and Sarah had
witnessed it first-hand. We don’t have that kind of privilege. On top anything
else, God sacrificed his
Son for all our sins once for all thus no more lives need to be sacrificed.
I am trying to just emphasis the importance of our submission in order for our
marriages to be blessed. I think, if Sarah had submitted none of us have an
excuse. J
God
Bless.
