Honor and Respect

     Each time I read through the passage of Ephesians 5:22-33, 1 would realize that I had absolutely no problem loving my husband. Oh, how I desperately wished that the Lord would have told me to love my him, that I could do. But this business about respect and honor, now that really got to me!

     So I would read these passages, flinching the whole time, until one day I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea.  I put on my "Monty Hall hat" , (you know, "Let's Make a Deal") and I went before the Lord and confessed that I hadn't been honoring my husband (as if the Lord hadn't noticed).  Then, I told the Lord that I was ready to honor my husband, just as soon as he deserved it!  I sensed immediately that this was not at all what the Lord desired of me and was trying to get me to gleen from the scripture. So, my
great struggle continued from one year to the next until I had just
about given up hope that I would ever truly honor my husband with my whole heart the way the Lord really desired me to do.

     One day about a year ago I was minding my own business reading the Psalms when God literally dropped the revelation in my heart as to how I was to honor my husband the way He intended. This is what I saw in the Word beginning with the scriptures in Psalms 8.

     HONOR - Hebrew HADAR meaning to honor, to glorify, to make splendid.  HADAR speaks of this splendor that belongs to God, to His creation, to His kingdom, and to man made in God's image.  Psalm 8:3-5 says, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set into place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?  You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor."  The biblical view of man is higher and more worth-affirming than any of the alternate views; in this reference God has actually crowned man with splendor in spite of his smallness relative to the vast heavens!!!

     Think about Jesus, his awesome power to create the universe, to literally speak things into existence that by His spoken word alone there is life.  Think about His power to judge, to convict, to call to repentance.

     Now think about that day when your husband will (not might, but definitely will) stand before God Almighty, the Great Creator. Those of you who are single, think of the husband God has for you in the future.  Think about the eyes of the Lord when they meet your husband's eyes and in the twinkling of an eye it will all be exposed. Every thought, every good intention, every everything. Now think of your very own husband falling to his knees in repentance, longing in his heart of hearts for yet another chance.  Just one more chance to be the priest of his home, the provider, the prayer warrior, to truly love you as Christ dearly loves His Church and did give His life for her.  A burning desire to carry the gospel to the end of the earth: to lay his hands on the sick and see them healed; to pray and see deliverance for those in bondage.  His heart aches with a desire to feed the hungry, to minister to the needy, but to no avail.  For it is too late, he has no last chance.

     As your husband is there on his knees weeping and longing for that one last chance to go back and make it right, that more than life itself his heart's desire is to please his Lord and be His faithful servant, the godly man he has been called to be.. But wait.... you have been called to be his helpmeet.  Are you doing that?  Are you going before the Lord daily and approaching the throne of Grace boldly on his behalf?  Are you calling his name before the Lord.  You are one.  Are you fasting and praying with him?  Are you keeping the Holy Spirit and pleading with Him to convict your husband and to place a deep desire in his heart for the things of God?

     Are you calling those things that are not as though they are?  For example, as you watch him devour the daily newspaper like a starving man hungry to see what the world is offering, do you silently praise God for the day he gets into the Word with such an insatiable hunger?  As he sleeps at night, do you lay your hand on him and lift him to the Lord that last time for the day?

     Pray for God to give him a true revelation of his position in your home.  Always pray the answer -- Jesus -- never pray the problem.  As you pour out your heart to the Lord on your husband's behalf, I believe several things will happen.

     1)  Your heart will be knit to his in a miraculous way.  A house divided against itself cannot stand.

     2)  It will cause the hand of God to move in your husband's life, your marriage, and your family.

     3)  You will be resisting the enemy and he must flee.

     4)  It brings you into agreement with God's word and there is power there.

     So ladies respect and honor that precious - YES PRECIOUS - man called your husband.  Singles it is never too soon to begin to pray for that man.

     Don't you believe that if the Creator of the universe can honor him and if Jesus, the Son of God can intercede for him, that you can too???

     Respect him, honor him - not because he deserves it!  But respect the position he is in, that position to stand before Almighty God one day and answer. He will be responsible for what has gone on in your home.  Most men will have absolutely no idea of the awesome responsibility they have and what it actually means. Therefore, it is up to us as their helpmeets to intercede for them and stand in the gap so that when that day comes, the Lord can say to them, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into thy place of rest."