| Does the Proverb above describe you? Would your husband agree with you? Proverbs 31 describes how a godly wife should look and act. It is a guideline, an instruction letter from the Lord, on how a wife is to conduct herself. Before we get started, I want to encourage you to do a self-examination and see how you are measuring up as a godly wife. Grab a highlighter and highlight the verses that describe you in Proverbs 31:10-31 (Don't be discouraged, if you only have a few, the first time I did this I highlighted six verses) Be honest with yourself, your goal is to become a virtuous wife, and knowing where you are right now, is the first step. If you are having trouble, or are not sure if the verse applies to you, ask your husband he knows you better than anyone. (If you dare!) Your self-examination will give you a starting point; you will see the area's you excel in, as well, as areas that need improvement. Our goal on this Christian journey is to be all that God has called us to be, and knowing our weaknesses is the first step to growth. If it is your desire to please the Lord, then through His sovereign grace and love you can be the virtuous wife described in Proverbs 31. Ask Him to change you, to help you be the wife He has called you to be. With us this is impossible but with God all things are possible. Let's pray: Lord God, I love you, with all my heart, all my will, and all my spirit. Lord you are worthy of all my praise, I praise you, Father for who You are and I thank You for loving me. Thank you for putting the desire in my heart to be the godly wife you have called me to be. I know that You desire growth in my life, so that I might come to know You better and be more conformed into Your image. I choose to present my body as a living sacrifice. I choose to set aside my own thoughts, emotions and pride, so I will Be an open vessel for You to do Your work in me. I desire to listen and follow Your voice (Your Word), No matter what You tell me to do because I know You love me I know, Jesus that You will never leave me nor forsake me. You will give me the strength and grace I need to change. My desire is to please You and to be a blessing to my husband. So I choose to do Your Will, above my own at all costs. You are my life and I live to glorify You. Change me Lord! In Your precious Name I pray, Amen What is a virtuous wife? It is a wife that has goodness and moral excellence; her actions are right and she has right thinking. It is a woman of merit and value; she is righteous and has chaste conduct. The Bible describes this kind of wife as a treasure. Her worth is far above rubies. Do you want to be a virtuous wife? Do you want to please the Lord? Do you want to obey His word? It can begin with one word and one action: SUBMIT! The Lord has called you to submit to your husbands! Before you say no way, I will never submit to my husband, he does not deserve it. You need to understand Gods design for a marriage and it is Satan that has made submission an ugly word. He runs around whispering in all of Gods childrens ears a distorted view of what submission really is. Submission is not bondage it is freedom and Satan does not want us to know the truth. If Satan can convince the world that submission to authority is a repressive negative concept, then rebellion against Gods authority will soon follow. Rebellion and pride is why Satan was thrown out of heaven and he wants us to believe his lies about submission, so we will become disobedient to God. We cannot allow Satan to win! To defeat Satan we must have faith in the Lord and we must learn to follow His Word: Ephesians 6:11-12 "Putting on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Submission is part of society, and without it, our society would crumble. If you look around, that is exactly what is happening today. People are full of pride, wanting to do things their own way instead of Gods way, especially the younger generation. Most children have no idea what it means to submit to authority. In their eyes, they know everything, and if they submit, it will show weakness, inferiority, they will be a doormat. Throughout Gods Word we are called to submit to authority: We are to submit to God. (James 4:7) We are to submit to our parents. (Ephesians 6:1) We are to submit to the authorities of the land. (1 Peter 2:13-15) We are to submit to employers. (1 Peter 2:18) We are to submit to church leadership (Hebrews 13:17) Wives must submit to husbands. (Ephesians 5:22) Test yourself and think about how you feel when you read (Ephesians 5:22) Submit to your own husbands, as on to the Lord, does every muscle in your body tighten up?Do you picture in your mind, walking ten paces behind your husband or rubbing his stinky bare feet when he gets home for work. This is not what submission means, (although I think our husbands would like it to mean that).Submission is allowing our husbands to lead us, and allowing him to make the final decision, without having a bitter attitude. (Philippians 2:14) "Do all things without murmuring and disputing."It does not mean you stay quit and say nothing. It means you share your opinions in love. Discussion and communication are an important part of a godly marriage, so sharing your views and opinions, with your husbands is vital. In fact, (Ephesians 4:15) says we are to speak the truth in love. Woman sometimes have a greater insight on things, and are able to see more of the pros and cons of a situation than most men. (We are not to rub this in ladies). The truth is, God made us to be a helpmate for our husbands and they need our input and prayers, if they are going to make the right decisions. I know what you are thinking right now, if I allow my husbands to make the decisions, they will be all wrong and everything will fall apart. This is where faith in God comes in. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path." (Proverbs 3:5-6) Submitting with faith that God will work it out is POWER! It takes faith to believe that God is correcting your relationships, situations, or circumstances when all the outward signs show just the opposite. ";For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7) Lets take a look at what submission means. It is exactly what the dictionary says it means. It means to yield; yield to people, precepts and principles that have been placed in our lives as authorities. Throughout our lives, someone has that place of authority. Whether it is our parents, our boss, a teacher, the pastor of the church, we look to others to lead and guide us. As we study submission, in the context of the Bible, there is nothing more beautiful, more freeing, then being able to submit; first to the Lord and then to your husband. The Lord promises to give us the grace, we need, if we just have faith. When you learn how to submit (surrender) yourself to the Lord you will see great and mighty things happen, things you never thought were possible. God wants you to allow Him to do the work in and through your life; He wants to be the one that does the changing in your husband. We need to let go and let God do His work. Did you know that women are control freaks? Before you start screaming and yelling at me, its not your fault, you were born with that sinful nature because of Eve, but it is your fault if you stay that way. Way back in the garden, when Adam and Eve lived a peaceful and wonderful life of fellowship with God, but Eve made the decisions that changed everything. She wanted to be in control, she wanted to be as god, knowing good and evil. So she believed the Serpent and partook of the tree, God forbid them to eat from, and gave it to her husband. Their eyes were immediately opened and sin entered the world. Did you ever notice in (Genesis 3:6) that Adam was right there next to Eve when she partook of the forbidden fruit? It was not that Adam was off naming all the animals, and had no idea what his wife was doing, he just chose not to stand up to his wife and do what was right. He allowed his wife to go against God. Adam did not want to lead, and Eve did not want to be led. Eve's desire was to be in control of her own life and her own choices. ;Gods original plan was for us to have complete fellowship with Him. He gave us the free will to love Him, to obey Him, and submit to His authority. Eve chose to exercise her free will and God chastised her and every woman after her according to that sin. Adam, being the man (the leader of the home) had even a greater punishment, because he chose not to do what was right, and by being the leader, it was ultimately his responsibility. Just like in our homes our husbands, will be the ones that stand before God, regarding the direction he took his family. When we stand before the judgment seat of Christ to receive our rewards it will be the Husband (not the wife) that has to give and answer to our Lord. (1 Corinthians 11:3) But I want you to understand that Christ is head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. In the Garden the man and the woman were both chastised, for their sins, but the man will have to give an account for his wife in the end, when we stand before the Lord. Lets take a closer look on Adam and Eve's punishment. "To the woman He said, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you shall bring for the children: Yet your desire will be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."(Genesis 3:16) God punished Eve in two ways: by giving her something no woman would ever want, (Pain of Childbirth) and taking away something she did. (Control over her husband) How many times have you heard a woman say I need a strong man? That is because we know we will walk all over a wimp! We know that our desire is to rule over him and control his every move. Its our sinful nature! "Then to Adam He said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree, about which I commanded you saying, you shall not eat form it: Cursed is the ground because of you: In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life."( Genesis 3:17) God also punished Adam in a way no man would ever want; (Hard Work) God took away Adams relaxing life and replaced it with having to work to provide for his family. But worst than that, Adam (and your husband) must rule over a woman who wants to make her own independent decisions. He has to take the leadership role in the home, which takes even more work. Most Christian marriages are in trouble today, because neither the husband nor the wife, want to follow Gods plan for theChristian home. The wife still wants to be in control and the husband would rather rest, and let her make the decisions,then rock the boat with his wife. Women of God, its time for you to stop trying to be in control and let Jesus be the Lord of your life. Just like God won't force us to love Him and follow His word, He won't force us to submit either. He wants us to surrender our lives and our hearts out of our own free will. A submissive wife is a virtuous wife. She is a woman of strong character. She is a woman that does what is right in the sight of God. She does her husband good not evil all the days of her life. It takes faith to believe that God will take care of all area of your life. It takes faith to believe that God will take care of even your husbands wrong decisions! (Hebrews 11:6) "But without faith it is impossible to please Him: For he that comes to God must believe that He is, And that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." There will be great rewards for you in heaven if you are able to learn how to surrender and trust in the Lord. Submission takes Faith and Strength! Do you think Jesus was weak? A wimp? How absurd to say it. Yet Jesus Christ led a totally submissive life: The Father has not let me alone for I always do those things that please Him. (John 8:29) Our Lord submitted His life to the Father, to the point of death on the cross. Jesus did not want to have to suffer the way He did, in (Matthew 26:39), He prayed, O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will. Jesus submitted his life;He understood that the Father knew what was best for the world. We are called to be examples of Christ and the Lord gave us specific instruction on how to conduct ourselves as wives. God knows what is best for us. (Ephesians 5:22-24) "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." Everyone will stand before God and have to give Him an account of what they did here on earth good or bad. It will be our husbands who will have to give an answer to our Lord, regarding the decision he made during our marriage, we are free of that responsibility. But we will have to stand before the Lord and give an account on how we conducted ourselves as a Christian Wife. Through prayer and obedience, to His word, we can become all that God has called us to be. Start by becoming a submissive wife that is pleasing in the sight of the Lord, and all other characteristics of a Proverbs 31 woman will soon fall into place. (1 Peter 3:1-6) "In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that Even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won Without a word by the behavior of their wives, As they observe your chase and respectful behavior. And let not your adornment be merely external braiding of the hair, And wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses: But let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the Imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is Precious in the sight of God. For in this way in former times the holy women also, who Hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands. Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear." If you feel your situation is too difficult to submit too, and you would like prayer or godly counsel, please feel free to contact me. I pray that the Lord may use me, to help all my Christian sisters, to become the godly wife the Lord wants you to be. 'God will honor your desire to be a virtuous wife, and when that glorious day comes, you will stand proud in front of our Lord! Remember He will grant you the desires of your heart.(Psalm 37:4) |
| The Virtuous Wife By Pennie Vatcher Proverbs 31:10-12 Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; so he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. |
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