FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2020
TOPIC: MAKE YOUR MARRIAGE WORK
TEXT: Ephesians 5:22-33
KEY VERSE:
“Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband” - (Ephesians 5:33)
We live in an age when the once revered institution of marriage seems to be losing its lustre. Many marriages are now treated purely as a socio-economic contract. Others last for shorter periods than ever before. Some people have even devised an escape from such problems. They either opt not to be married at all or agree to co-habit without any marital commitment. Some even mindlessly contravene God’s holy standard of one man, one wife.
God does not just desire the marriage institution, but wants it to work. For this reason, He commands wives to submit themselves to their husbands. The reason is because the husband is the head of the family, as Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church. Just as the Church must be subject to the Lord Jesus Christ, so must the wife do to her husband. The husband is to love his wife with the same fervour as Christ loved and died for the Church. In fact, the husband must love his wife as himself - nourishing, cherishing her in all things - and recognise that in marriage, both have become one flesh. Love from the husband must be reciprocated by reverence and honour from the wife.
Problems arise in the family because spouses are not as selfless as the Lord commands. You must put aside your own selfish interests and seek your partner’s welfare. This is what brings harmony and increases love and respect in the family. There must be sacrificial love and submission for peace to reign. Do not undermine the leadership of your husband and his interests. The husband must love his wife as himself. Mutual love and care make both of them to attain the best level possible in life as one flesh.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
It takes two to make a marriage a success, and one a failure.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
1 Kings 15-16
HIGHER EVERYDAY
FRIDAY JUNE 26, 2020
THE OUTWARD MAN PERISHES
TEXT: 2 CORINTHIANS 4:14-18
MEMORY VERSE: "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day" (2 CORINTHIANS 4:16).
Our outward man is our physical body with which we contact the physical world. The inward man on the other hand, is the spiritual aspect of man with which we contact the spirit world. When talking about Christian resurrection, Apostle Paul stated, "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body" (1 Corinthians 15:44). The outward man perishes (grows weak, gets sick, grows old, dies and decays). The spirit man does not die and must be renewed daily by feeding on God's word, praying and living holily. Rick Warren declared, "One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body...but not the end of me."
The important question is, as you take care of your body, do you care for your spirit? Are you preparing to spend eternity with God or with Satan? You may live to be 70 or 100 years old, but after death, you live forever. Where will you spend eternity? You need to be born again.
QUOTE: After death, you live forever.
CHALLENGE: The inward man is more important than the outward man.
PRAYER: O God, help me to take care of my inward man.