Day 22 of 30 Days of Praise

Sisters, I'm about to share a secret with you. And it's a secret God shared with my prayer partners & me this morning. God is so good---and so faithful! He wants us to "get" this!! So listen closely. It's important and I want you to "get" this, too.
Yesterday, as I was walking with Jodina, I was telling her how I'd learned from Gary Smalley (I think it was him!) years ago that men learn with word pictures. For instance, if your husband was pressuring you to buy a new car and you knew you didn't have the money for that, you might tell him this: "You know, Gene (good neutral name!), you've asked me to take care of our finances and I have. That's like you've put a backpack on my back. I'm equipped to do it. But because of our debt, it's like bricks have been added to that backpack. And every time you tell me new things you want, it's like you're adding another 20 lb. brick! This backpack is getting too heavy for me to carry." That's a word picture.
So we talked about how visual our men are. They need to "see" something to understand.

Well, this morning as we met to pray, Jodina read from I Peter 3:1-2. (We've been camped at I Peter 3 for YEARS!) It says this: "In like manner, you married women, be submissive to your own husbands [subordinate yourselves as being secondary to and dependent on them, and adapt yourselves to them], so that even if any do not obey the Word [of God], they may be won over not by discussion but by the [godly] lives of their wives, When they observe the pure and modest way in which you conduct yourselves, together with your reverence [for your husband; you are to feel for him all that reverence includes: to respect, defer to, revere him--to honor, esteem, appreciate, prize, and, in the human sense, to adore him, that is, to admire, praise, be devoted to, deeply love, and enjoy your husband]."
Did you catch it? Jodina caught it first...When they observe our pure modest way in which we conduct ourselves!! It's been there all along! Men are visual. They're not going to change because of anything we SAY---it's going to be by what they observe. In fact, as you may have read yesterday, my words get in the way. Think about Eve. She got in-between Adam & God. Yet she was the one deceived!!! Adam knew the rules about the tree, but he was hearing Eve instead of God. She got in the way with her words.
You know, some of these Truths have been spelled out for us all along. For instance, 30 years ago when we were being taught how to love our husbands and submit, we were trying to love them. But Ephesians 5 clearly tells us what both the man and woman need. It wasn't until I read Dr. Emerson Eggerichs book, "Love & Respect," that I saw it! Ephesians 5 tells us that men need respect and women need love! God had it there all along. Daniel 12:4 says, "But you, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the Book until the time of the end. [Then] many shall run to and fro and search anxiously [through the Book], and knowledge [of God's purposes as revealed by His prophets] shall be increased and become great." Knowledge and understanding of God's Word is increasing. Isn't that exciting??
What do you think of when you read this verse? 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." When I asked my friends what they thought it meant, here are some of the answers we gave:
1. Help him change.
2. Help him see where to go
3. Help him make decisions
Eve probably did those things in the Spirit until the fall. But then the curse came in that she would want to control her husband. So now our flesh gets in the way. My flesh wants to control my husband. I want to change him. I want to tell him where to go. I want to manipulate his decisions. (I'm being honest, here!)
But what does it really mean for me now? Me telling my husband what to do isn't going to help him. My actions will. He's not going to be persuaded by my words (at least in the right way). I need to learn to be quiet and not get in-between him and God. What happens if I manipulate and he does what I tell him----and it fails? He blames me. And he feels justified in that. And he doesn't change.
I know...I know. This is a lot to take in. And it's all new to me. So it's hard to put it down in words because I haven't fleshed it all out yet. I just know that I don't want to get in-between my husband and God. I want my husband to see by my actions a "picture" of submission, grace and obedience.
Jeremiah 6:16 says, "Thus says the Lord: Stand by the roads and look; and ask for the eternal paths, where the good, old way is; then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it!"
Walk in the paths God has told you will work---from ancient times. Be a visual aid for God. WE ARE GOD'S VISUAL AID--HIS "WORD PICTURE"--FOR OUR HUSBANDS!! Do you get that??? Do we trust God enough to get out of His way? We may have to bind fear in our lives to do it. But I want to be a channel that God can flow through. I want to bless and not curse. I want to submit and leave the results to God. Do you realize what's at stake? The GENERATIONS coming behind us!! Esther had no idea a nation would be saved because she learned how to submit. She didn't get in the way of God. She didn't speak up to save herself until she was counseled to do so---and only after calling for a nation to fast and pray. Is that not a picture for us???
Father, help me. I want to get this. I want to learn that my words are not important---but my behavior is. My words may not be remembered, but how I live will be. Help us as women learn to hold our tongues. Help us to have pure, modest behavior. Bind control and manipulation from us. Loose pure hearts. Loose faith in You! You've never failed us...and You've worked in spite of us! You're so awesome and Your ways are past finding out. Oh!! And thank You for sharing Your secrets with us!!! I love You, Daddy! In Jesus' name, Amen.