Submit

Father God, You are Holy and I honour You as my one and only God!  Jesus Christ, I adore You and You alone.  Holy Spirit, I give myself over to You every moment of every day, because You are the reason that I can continue in a world that is so lost and so removed from my God.  Thank you for keeping me on the right path, disciplining me along the way.  Amen.

I am a very independent woman, with a very strong personality and therefore I have no trouble taking a stand for what I believe in and neither for what I want.  Now this can be a good attribute to my personality, but when exercised wrongly, it can damage relationships.  With my husband going away regularly on official business, I am often left alone to run the household by myself and time has taught me to be strong and to survive on my own, with the Lord as my guide off course.  The longest period that I had to cope on my own was ten months and praise God; I have survived, grown and defeated satan.  Now just to let you understand what the implications are for becoming so independent: Once the man of the house comes back, ready to take over the leading role in the household, disruption is often caused.

Having to force yourself to be strong and to survive on your own, makes you somewhat hard and although you know that you have to give back and give in to being the wife and not the king of the house, is both difficult and challenging.  As a woman, you also have your own needs and sometimes it feels that those are not important and when not addressed, that to, contributes to further conflict.  Does this sound familiar to you?  Does this perhaps also describe your life or your work situation?

In the past week I was faced with a challenge to stand back although I felt that my needs were not being considered.   As I got to work the next day, the gate guard gave me scripture, like he does every single morning and this time it came from 1 Peter 3:1-7.  Once read, it hit me quite hard saying “wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behaviour of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.  Your beauty should not come from outward adornment………instead it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight….”  In this scripture the key words for me was “submit.”

Why am I sharing this experience with you?  Firstly, God wants to remind all the women out there, that no matter what, we must stay submissive to our husbands.  You see, God knows the desires of your heart, but to fight for something you want and the other party does not really see it, will only build into conflict.  Stay humble, take a step backwards and allow God to move in.  Keep your thoughts and actions pure and gentle, and the results will come as indicated in 1 Peter 2:3-7.  God is true and so is His Word.  Amen!

Secondly, this scripture I believe must not only be read as if written for women alone.  Whether man, women or child, you must take this scripture and apply it to every situation and challenge in your life.  You see, if you are being treated unfairly or whatever the challenge is that you are facing, take a stand.  Yes, you know who you are in Christ and even if the person on the other side is at the wrong, still stay humble and make sure that you submit to God.  You don’t have to give in all the time, but by approaching the situation in a humble and gentle manner as described in 1 Peter 3:1-7, will bear fruit.

Dear reader, why is it so hard for us to stay humble?  The answer is actually very simple.  Satan knows that one of the power tools God has given us is to stand in this world, humbleness.  I urge you to take up a different approach from this day onward.  Instead of fighting and standing up against one another, rather pray in the Spirit and stay humble.  It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it!

Whoever you are, whatever you do, no matter what the circumstances, submit!  Remember it is not to ever submit to satan but to submit to God alone!

With lots of love in Jesus Name

Princess K

PS:  Dear reader, please remember that the scripture used are from the New International Version.  If the scripture is read in another language and translation it might differ slightly.  A verse in the NIV might be a different one in your bible, i.e. Ps 37:3 in the NIV might be Ps 37:4 in your bible.  This does not always occur, but has happened in some instances.