Wednesday 15 November 2017

When Submission Goes Wrong

Hello people, I trust you are doing very great. This year is rounding up and indeed we are grateful to be alive to praise the living God. I want to apologize that my next series of blog post will not be accompanied by its voice version owing to the fact that editing the voice version takes a lot of time and delays the blog post. But by the grace of God, I will resume the voice when there is less pressure.
Today’s post is what I want to title “When Submission Goes Wrong.” There are a lot of wives who say they have submitted and regretted doing so as they have lost all that they worked for to submission with absolutely no returns to them. They are worse off after submission than they were before submitting. To these ones submission is more of a curse than a blessing.
Some other category of wives say they have submitted to their husbands, and rather than the husband loving and respecting them in return, he has turned back to treat them like a glorified housemaid rather than a suitable helper that God has provided for him that should be loved and respected like God has instructed the man.
Then we have men who now take undue advantage of that God given instruction to the wives to manipulate their wives and force control over them. Men who would ask their wives to work and submit her salary in his account as her head all because God says the wife should submit to her husband. They have absolutely forgotten that God who gave the wife the instruction to submit also gave the husband the instruction to love and respect his wife as himself and as Christ loves the church. Like the word of one of my big sisters in the Lord, submission in marriage has been grossly bastardized.
So we will be looking at these issues and trust God to open our hearts and eyes of understanding that we might be able to differentiate between the true instructions of God in marriage and the lies of the devil. We will learn also from some true life issues that we will use to understand these things better. This discussion will take more than just a blog post, so I will encourage you to follow the series.
In today’s post we will discuss the issues of the wives who grossly regret submission in marriage owing to the fact that they submitted all and then lost all. The first thing we need to understand is that God’s law is perfect, and when you follow the law of the Lord through the help of the Holy Spirit you cannot and will not have any regret. The Bible says flesh and blood cannot please God so we need the Spirit of God in us to enable us do the will of God for our lives.
Submission in marriage is not slavery, and submission in marriage does not translate to the fact that the wife should lose her brain in the bid to submit to her husband. If a wife didn’t need a brain and she only needs to think and rationalize issues through the brain of her husband, then God would have created the woman brainless. But He didn’t create women brainless because our intelligent contribution in marriage is very vital to the success of that marriage.
One important thing that needs to be highlighted and emphasized in marriage is that there is a difference between reluctant obedience/compliance to the husband’s instruction and a willful consent to the husband’s instruction. God who sees the heart and mind judges all based on the heart and mind. We as humans are limited to seeing only actions, but God sees and understands the intent of the heart and the motive behind every action and so because He does not as we see, He doesn’t judge as we judge.
These analysis is what was behind God defending Sarah in her submission Genesis 12:10-17 and in Genesis 20, and then judging and killing Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11. There is a difference between agreeing with your husband on a course of action such that you buy into the idea and you think his idea is good for execution from when you don’t buy into the idea and not agreeing with what he wants you to do, but you pray and do it anyway because God says you should submit.    
Submission in marriage is not a ticket to sin. When your husband's instruction is a sin, then as a child of God who has developed a relationship with God, you need to run to God in prayer and seek his intervention in the matter before going ahead to join your husband in sin. If you don't hear from God go ahead and submit, but not without first letting God know that the action does not have your willful consent in it. This is the difference between Sarah and Sapphira. But when your husband instructs you to sin and you don't see the action as sin or he has been able to convince you to buying into the idea then it is no longer submission, it has become an agreement to sin, you and your husband have become partners in crime. If the consequences of those actions begin to manifest don't blame it on submission, own up to your sin and seek God for forgiveness. 
If your husband comes home to let you in on a fraudulent deal he did in his office and then you both rejoiced for the money that came and even thanked God for it, then you are both partners in crime. If he gives you part of that money and you took it and spent it that is not submission any more.   
Let me use a simple example to illustrate what I am trying to get across: A young couple are faced with a pregnancy they didn’t want or plan for. The economic situation at that time was very tough and they already had two children they were struggling to take care of and now the wife is pregnant again. In one case scenario, the husband was able to convince the wife that they should abort the pregnancy and they can properly plan for a baby when they are more economically buoyant and have enough for a new baby. So the wife thought it through and even though she was scared of the thought of having an abortion she still understood and agreed that they can’t afford to have the baby at that time. The husband succeeded in resting her fears that he would stand by her side all through the process and there was nothing to fear. He promised to take her to a very good hospital to get the abortion done and so she fully agreed and he drove her to the hospital and they went for the abortion. In this case there was full agreement between the husband and the wife for an abortion to take place and abortion eventually took place. This is not a case of a wife submitting to her husband, but a case of a wife being in agreement with her husband to do wrong. If God would judge this case, both the husband and wife are culpable and both are punishable. The wife cannot claim submission in this case before God, even if she claims submission before man. 
But in another scenario; the husband claimed he didn't want another baby and even though the wife understood her husband’s reluctance, she pleads with him that abortion is a sin before God and even though she didn't want a baby at that time also and she knew that economically they couldn't afford another baby in the family, she acknowledges that God was more powerful than their problems. But with all her pleading to her husband, he still insisted that she gets an abortion. Then she goes to God in prayers asking God to come into the situation and take control. She prays that God should soften her husband’s heart to accept the situation they are faced with while not fighting her husband or insisting on her own way, she prayed God will come through for her. 
If this woman eventually got the abortion in submission to her husband's instruction, the blood of that child would be on her husband’s head because God sees her heart and knows her intention and motive. 
This is where we differentiate submission from willful consent. No wife will get a gallon of acid and bath herself with it because her husband asked her to and she is following the Bible in submission. If you as a wife see that your husband is going wrong, the Bible isn’t saying you should join him in wrong doing just so that you submit. What God expects is that you bring such daring situation to Him in prayers without being confrontational with your husband and He (God) will do in that situation what you cannot do.
I have shared my story on this blog so many times and when I was going through my own experiences they seemed tough at that time, but today that I am made to speak life to marriages through this blog I understand better what the Lord had in mind when He made me go through the tough experiences of that time.
When I got married I was earning more than 10times what my husband earned then and he demanded control of my income which I didn’t like. I struggle with that kind of submission but I carried my case to God. The Lord re-enforced His word to me that I should submit which I didn’t have a choice but to obey. Today my husband earns more than 10times what I earned then, and I am a full-time housewife now earning no income. If I had not obeyed the word of God then, I would have had myself to blame if my husband treated me badly now that he earns more because he would be justified in himself for repaying me back in my own coin.
I appreciate that we can’t generalize marriage issues and it’s important to treat and handle each marriage issue in its own merit like my big sister in the Lord would always say. Unity in marriage is very vital, and you need to be in agreement with your husband for marriage to succeed and for you to enjoy the dividends of marriage, but don't agree on wrong doing; don't agree to sin and don't agree in doing evil before God; don't be a willful accomplice in sinning and then hold God and His law responsible for your sins. As a wife you are not designed by God to agree to your husband's sins and wrong doings in the name of submission, but you are his suitable helper to help him become better and become all that God has designed and destined him to be by the power of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus. 
When you don't agree with your husband on issues don't go confrontational with your him but just pray and when things don't go the way you think they should go, just let them be. God expects that you bring all the issues of your life to Him to solve for you, He understands that you can't handle them alone. When submission is tough, pray but don’t go confrontational. Ask the Lord for His intervention and leading. Don’t compromise your stand in God because you want to submit, yet don't be a nagging and quarrelsome wife because of your belief. Let the purity and reverence of your life be a tool in the hands of God in drawing your husband to Himself.  
In the second scenario of the story of the pregnant wife that I shared earlier, the wife who was reluctant to have the abortion but asked the Lord for His intervention had God's intervention because God came through for her. The Lord softened the heart of the husband and he agreed that his wife should have the child as their third and last child. On the day the wife was to have their baby, the husband got a call from the company he had applied to several months earlier, while at the labor ward with his wife expecting the arrival of their second son and third child, for him to come collect the appointment letter for a job he had applied for but didn’t believe they would take him. That job changed their financial status and they in fact had a fourth child and still grew in wealth.
Reluctant submission is very different willful agreement, do not let your husband talk you into disobeying the will of God for your life. The devil is crafty and can use anyone, even your husband to derail you, don’t fall for it. Let your light so shine that it draws your husband to Jesus. When your husband is leading you off from the will of God, don’t be confrontational, let it not lead to an argument, hold your peace and pray, God will show up. 

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6 comments:

  1. Thank you so much woman of God for this great exposition. It is quite clear that for us as wives who love the Lord and want to obey him we must submit to our husbands, however it must always be in the Lord as we can not use submission as an excuse to sin by going against God's laws.I want to make an observation however concerning the example of the woman who was pregnant and the husband wanted her to to get an abortion. Thank God the Lord came through for them and they accepted God's gift as Children are always gifts from God whether they are planned or not. My humble submission is that it is never right to pray that a miscarriage should occur. Are we now saying that God should kill on our behalf? If it occurs on its own than all well and good but I think it is not right to pray such a prayer at all. May the Lord help us always to accept his will even when we do not understand in Jesus name, amen. Thank you.

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    1. Thank you so much Sis Busola For your comment, I really appreciate it and I totally agree with you that it is very wrong to pray for a miscarriage. We shouldn't do that as children of God. This woman prayed in that manner out of pressure and frustration from her husband. It was a whole lot of pressure then that I believed pushed her into that state. I just pray people won't read this and take it as a norm

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  2. Wow! This piece has hammered the nail on the head. Welldone ma.

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  3. Thank you ma for excellent piece.it really ministered to me.

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  4. Quite inspiring piece; more grace Ma'am

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