SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
2/21/2013 12:12 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Husband
& Wives PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Proverbs
Message of the
verses: We will begin to look at
what Proverbs thirty-one has to say about the wife in today’s Spiritual
Diary. Chapter thirty-one of Proverbs is
probably the most extensive portion of Scripture that speaks to the wife. We also find references that speak of the
wife in the books of Ephesians, Colossians, and also in First Peter. We looked at some things that Peter wrote
about the husband in yesterday’s Spiritual Diary from chapter three and verse
seven of First Peter. The first six
verses of that chapter deal with the wife and so we may take a look at some of
those verses along with the verses in Proverbs thirty-one.
Let us first take a look at Proverbs 14: “The wise woman
builds her house, But the foolish tears it down with her own hands.” We can say from looking at this verse that
there seems to be two kinds of wives, and I would suppose that we could also
say this about husbands. One builds up
the house and one tears it down. How do
we build up the house? The first thing
we have to realize is that we can build up our household by knowing and
following the Lord, for it was the Lord who designed the home and therefore it
is the Lord who can give us the direction to make it the best that it can
be. If both the wife and the husband
follow what the Lord has written in His Word then the home will be happy and
fulfilled. We have to remember that
there are times in our lives when we want to do things our way. There is a popular song of years gone by that
was written for Frank Sinatra entitled “I Did it My Way.” I believe it was written by Paul Anka and
when you listen to the words of that song your realize that as believers in
Jesus Christ we cannot do things our ways and that is the problem with many
marriages today, the couples are trying to do it their way and not God’s
way. Many people think that what is
written in the Bible is going to stop our fun, but that is not true, we will be
fulfilled by following the Word of God.
Let’s take a look at another verse from Proverbs about
the wife, “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, But she who shames
him is like rottenness in his bones.” “A
wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but a disgraceful wife is like
decay in his bones.” (Both verses are
Proverbs 12:4, one from the NASB, and one from the NIV.) There is a big choice again seen in this
verse for the wife to make. When God
created Adam and told him to go around His creation and name the animals Adam
saw that there was both male and females in all of the species that he had to
name, and I suppose that Adam felt like there was something missing in his life
and so the Lord put Adam to sleep and did an operation on him. God formed Eve out of one of the ribs that He
took from Adam and I think that I would have liked to have been there when Adam
woke up for Eve was the completion to Adam and he realized it for we hear these
famous words come from his lips, “"This is now bone of my bones, And flesh
of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man."
Next we see these Words from God, “For this reason a man shall leave his father
and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” Jesus repeated these verses in the Gospel of
Matthew when the Pharisees were trying to trick Him about what Moses wrote when
Moses spoke about giving a wife a certificate of divorce. Jesus said that God had made man and woman to
live together being one and that the only reason Moses wrote that was because
of the hardness of men’s hearts.
We know that husbands can also make troubles for their
wives, but Solomon does not mention this in Proverbs. However he does mention some problems that a
woman can make for a husband in Proverbs 19:13b, “the contentions of a wife are
a constant dripping.” These kinds of
problems that a wife can make can tempt a man to look for attention
elsewhere. “It is better to live in a
desert land Than with a contentious and vexing woman (Pr. 21:19).” “It is better to live in a corner of a roof
Than in a house shared with a contentious woman (PR. 21:9).” Dr. Wiersbe writes, “But let’s be fair and
admit that the situation might be reversed and the husband be the culprit. God hates family discord (6:19), and we
should do everything we can to practice in the home the kind of love that
produces unity and harmony.”
Now we will begin to look at Proverbs 31:10-31 to see
what the author of this chapter in Proverbs had to say about the ideal
wife. It is worth noting that this poem
was written in an acrostic with the initial words of the twenty-two verses all
beginning with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet which is similar to
Psalm 119. This may have been done this
way in order to make it easier for people to memorize this portion of
Scripture. It would be important for
both men and women to memorize it because the woman cans see what God desires
for her and the men can know what God desires for woman and so when looking for
his wife he would realize what it is that God desires her to be.
First of all, she
is a woman of character: (Proverbs 31:10-12): “10 An excellent wife, who can find? For her
worth is far above jewels. 11 The heart of her husband trusts in her, And he
will have no lack of gain. 12 She does him good and not evil All the days of
her life.”
We know that a person’s character is most important, more
important than jewels as verse ten expresses.
Proverbs 3:15 shows us that character is more important than wealth, “13
How blessed is the man who finds wisdom
And the man who gains understanding. 14 For her profit is better than the
profit of silver And her gain better than fine gold. 15 She is more precious
than jewels; And nothing you desire compares with her (Pr. 3:13-15).”
Here are some important words from Dr. Wiersbe’s
commentary, “Marriage doesn’t change a
person’s character. If there are
character weaknesses in either the husband or the wife, marriage will only
reveal and accentuate them. A husband or
wife who hopes to change his or her spouse after the honeymoon is destined for
disappointment.”
We can see from the section in Proverbs 31:11 that the
faithful woman, the woman of God can be trusted by her husband, and when there
is trust in a marriage there is harmony in the marriage.
We will continue looking at Proverbs 31 in the next Spiritual
Diary.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: One of the
ingredients of a happy marriage is love and so let me give some words about
what true love is from a message that was given at our church service last
night as our senior’s Pastor began a series on the fruit of the Spirit.
We know that the word love in the Greek that is found in
the Scriptures for the kind of love that God has is “agape” or unconditional
love. We could describe it as “one way loving.”
“Love is the pulsating principle of biblical Christianity.” “Agape is
taking the initiative to build up and meet the needs of others, without
expecting anything in return.”
“Agape-Treat others better or more important than yourself,” and this is
not an easy thing to do.
“Agape is (1) A divine capacity to love. Love is a decision of the will. (2) More a response than a feeling. (3)
Fueled by the needs of others.”
I believe that agape love is very important and perhaps
the most important element of marriage and as seen above it has to come from
the Spirit of God to work.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to learn more about agape kind of
love and pray that the Spirit of God will give me the desire and the will to
love in that way.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 32:1-3
1 How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered! 2 How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute
iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit! 3 When I kept silent about my
sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long.
Turning Points Wisdom for
Today: “Nearly all men can stand
adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” (Abraham Lincoln) “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD,
like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.” (Proverbs 21:1)
2/21/2013 1:20 PM
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